


Royal Secret from Royal Shame

by DarkMasterofCupcakes



Series: Royal Secret AU [1]
Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: Alternate History, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bullying, Childbirth, Complicated Relationships, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Miscarriage Scare, Retelling, Secrets, Self-Harm, Self-Sacrifice, Teen Parenting, Teen Pregnancy, Threatened Infanticide, multiple POVs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-03-21 13:31:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 12
Words: 167,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13741944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkMasterofCupcakes/pseuds/DarkMasterofCupcakes
Summary: After things go horribly wrong during her mewberty transformation, Star finds herself dealing with a life-changing secret that she has to keep from everyone - including Marco.





	1. Chapter 1

Marco swore he felt his heart stop as Star just…stared at him, her normally expressive face completely blank and devoid of emotion. 

After a moment, she tilted her head and frowned slightly, though her now heart-shaped eyes still never left his face. It was like she was trying to figure out who he was; like she had forgotten the person who had been her best friend ever since she had come to Earth over two and a half months ago. At that moment, he wasn’t sure which emotion was more prevalent at the moment: fear or sadness. 

Despite the situation, Marco couldn’t help but feel a twinge of relief when the corners of Star’s lips suddenly turned up; at least it seemed like she remembered who he was. 

However, what she did next made his heart go from feeling like it wasn’t beating at all, to pounding at what felt like a thousand beats a minute. 

She began to hover, her wings making a low buzzing noise as she lifted herself off the ground, eliminating the slight difference in height that there was between them. Then, she started to move forward, placing her hand on his arm – just as he had done to her mere seconds ago, when he had tried to stop her from terrorizing and trapping their schoolmates, though her touch was much more gentle than his had been – and shutting her eyes as she slowly got closer to him. 

The only sounds Marco could hear were the pounding of his heart, and the faint hum of Star’s wings…until a new noise broke through the air. 

Star froze and turned her head towards the sound of Oskar’s keytar, her face once again going blank as she tilted her head slightly, looking like she was trying to decide what she thought of the music. 

Marco felt his heartbeat slow slightly at this; he figured that Star would be drawn towards Oskar – the guy she’d had such a big crush on that she had just been staring at him for at least two straight minutes earlier than very day. Not that he wanted anything bad to happen to Oskar; but at least if Star was distracted, Marco could try to find some way to stop her, a way to help her snap out of whatever this “mewberty” thing had done to her. 

However, the sense of relief faded quickly as her expression changed once again: this time into what looked to be an expression of annoyance. Rather than release Marco in order to pursue her crush, the mutated Mewnian princess simply turned her head back towards him, at which point her expression softened and the smile returned to her face. 

Marco opened his mouth to say something, but before a single word could leave her lips, Star once again started firing that strange purple webbing from the hands that weren’t on him, aiming at the area immediately surrounding them. 

Right before the stuff could touch him, Marco finally snapped out of it – and tried to make Star do the same. 

“S-Star!” he said, perhaps a little louder than he had first intended, and unable to keep his voice from shaking slightly. 

That single word seemed to be enough to break through whatever it was that had Star doing all this, as the moment he said her name, she stopped spraying her webbing, and released her hold on his arm; she even went so far as to lower herself to the ground, though the expression on her face never changed, and her eyes never left his face.

“Star…” he repeated, this time in a much softer tone, “Let’s just go home, okay?” 

She simply smiled and nodded her head slightly – which was a relief to Marco, who was so focused on getting Star home before she could do anymore damage, or harm anyone (including herself), that he didn’t even notice how the smile on Star’s face had grown slightly as soon as he had taken hold of her hand to lead her away. 

There was a part of Marco’s mind that wanted to stop and help all of the other boys that she had trapped in the lockers, but the much more persistent side kept reminding him that there was no way of knowing if Star would stay calm long enough for him to free them all – the fact that he had somehow managed to get her to agree to go home with him was enough of a miracle in his eyes. 

So, despite feeling very guilty about it, he ultimately decided to simply focus on getting Star back home, hoping that either the material she had used to trap everyone wasn’t really that strong; or, if that wasn’t the case, that the two of them could return and help them once Star was back to normal. However, for the time being, he just needed to focus on getting her home and – hopefully – figuring out a way to get her back to normal. 

Without even bothering to think about the possible consequences that would arise when an authority figure found out about what Star had done while in this state, and that the two of them had left school grounds without permission, Marco made his way out of the school and started heading towards home, holding Star’s hand tightly in his the whole way there. 

Fortunately, it didn’t take the two of them long to reach the Diaz household, and both of Marco’s parents would be out until late that night. This meant that Marco had literally all day to try and figure out how to help Star. However, that led to a problem…

”What’s this ‘mewberty’ thing even about?” he asked aloud as he locked the front door, speaking more to himself than to Star, who had – almost reluctantly – released his hand once they had stepped inside. 

“I mean,” he continued, walking over to sit heavily on the couch – where Star was quick to join him, sitting closer than she usually would – “I thought it would be like what happens to teenagers here on Earth, but it’s completely different. And that Glossaryck guy wasn’t any help, so now I’m just –“

Before he could say another word, Marco was drawn out of his thoughts by a very unfamiliar feeling: someone slowly pulling down the zipper of his hoodie.

“S-Star? What are you doing?” Marco asked, eyes wide as he glanced first at his chest – where Star’s fingers were still grasping his zipper, now halfway undone – and then at his best friend’s face.

As soon as he had spoken, she had stopped unzipping his hoodie, and instead turned her attention to his face. For a brief moment, she seemed confused by his question. Then, almost immediately afterwards, she smiled and moved towards him, one hand still on the zipper while another went to gently rest on his shoulder. 

Once again, Marco felt his heartbeat start to quicken, and it seemed to get faster as she got closer. He swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat, and went to repeat his question. 

However, this time he was cut off halfway through by Star pressing her lips against his. 

At this moment, his mind practically went blank and he found himself frozen, unsure of how exactly to respond to what had just happened. What happened once he decided how to respond surprised even him. 

Rather than try and gently push her away, he instead found himself returning the kiss, even parting his lips slightly, allowing her to deepen it as she continued to unzip his hoodie. It wasn’t until she had completely undone the zipper – and climbed onto his lap – that he broke the kiss. 

“Wait…wait…” he said, grabbing her shoulders and gently pushing her away, receiving a questioning look in response to his actions, which quickly morphed into a slightly hurt expression. 

“Star…we…I can’t…” Marco said, his hands still resting on her shoulders.

It was hard enough for him to figure out exactly what he wanted to say, much less actually get the words out. He wasn’t ignorant – he could at least make a guess as to what Star wanted, and he knew he had to keep that from happening; even though (and he tried his best to ignore it), there was also a part of him that had enjoyed having her so close, and showing him a level of affection and intimacy that he’d never experienced before. 

“Marco…” The sound of Star’s voice, even if it sounded slightly off from its usual tone, was enough to pull the boy out of his thoughts. 

He turned his head to look at her, once again locking eyes with the transformed princess. And, as she had done just moments ago, she kissed him again – though this time, it was for barely longer than a split second, barely more than a simple peck on the lips. However, for as little time as it lasted, it seemed to spark something deep inside of Marco. 

Without any hesitation, without even thinking, he pulled her back towards him and pressed his lips against hers. His kiss was definitely more passionate than the one he had just received, though it was still surprisingly gentle. 

She responded by both returning and deepening the kiss. 

At the same time, each pair of her hands seemed to find some way to occupy themselves: the highest and lowest pairs simply wrapped around him in an embrace, with the former wrapping around his neck and the latter around his waist, while the middle pair of hands busied themselves with pulling off his hoodie. Something that Marco found himself welcoming; with how quickly it felt like the room was heating up, he was more than happy to get rid of the extra layer of clothing. 

As soon as it was off, he once again moved his hands, this time resting them on Star’s waist, just slightly above her hips. The moment he put his hands there, Star reacted.

First she broke the kiss, only to reinitiate it mere seconds later, even more passionate than before, with the arms that she’d wrapped around Marco’s neck maneuvering so that her hands could gently cup his cheeks. 

Marco was so transfixed by these actions that he barely even noticed the faint flapping sound that momentarily filled the room. 

What he did notice was the fact that not only did the temperature in the room feel like it was going up by the second, but now the whole room was filled with an aroma that Marco could only describe as absolutely amazing – he couldn’t even think of what to compare it to; he just knew he’d never experienced anything more enjoyable before this moment. 

The scent was so enticing that – despite the small voice in the back of his mind protesting – he had to try and figure out exactly where it was coming from. Hesitating slightly, he – somewhat reluctantly – broke the kiss and pulled away slightly before opening his eyes. 

The first thing he saw was, of course, Star’s face. But, it looked…somewhat different from how it did earlier, or, at least, it seemed that way. 

While he couldn’t exactly say that she looked ugly, even after her transformation, he couldn’t deny that the changes in her appearance were somewhat unsettling…until he looked at her at this moment. While nothing about her actually appearance had changed, it was like he was looking at her in a whole new light. Rather than looking frightening to him, she now seemed…cute – beautiful, even. 

As soon as he saw her, any thought of trying to determine the source of the scent just completely evaporated from his mind, replaced instantly with the desire to keep her close – a desire he was more than happy to obey. 

Without taking his hands off her body, he moved them downwards slightly, until they were resting on her hips. This simple movement seemed to have quite the effect on Star, and she closed the very small distance between them, pressing her body flush against his. This alone was enough to elicit a moan from Marco…and then Star continued to move; keeping her chest pressed up against his as much as possible, she began to rock her hips, the result of this motion having quite the effect on her best friend, as he was only able to muffle the moan that resulted by once again pressing his lips against hers in a kiss. 

This seemed to begin a cycle, with the kiss causing Star to rock her hips more quickly, all the while pressing her body all the closer to his – which in turn caused Marco to not only repeat the kiss, but also deepen it each time. 

They continued this way for several moments, until something happened that broke into Marco’s mind and pulled him away from his current thoughts – not that those thoughts were especially…complex. 

Well, in truth it was two things that caught his attention: the first was that Star had moved her body away from his – it wasn’t that she had pulled away by that much, but after what had been happening for the past several moments, it honestly felt a little…strange to not fell her pressed up against him. The second thing that caught his attention was the apparent explanation for why Star had created the slight distance between them. 

While her uppermost set of arms remained draped around his neck, the other two were busy doing something else entirely, though both sets of arms clearly had a very similar idea. One pair of arms began to slide underneath his shirt – both causing a soft moan to emerge from his mouth at the feeling of her hands running gently over his skin, and his shirt to slowly slide up as well as her hands went farther up on his torso; the remaining set of hands went in the opposite direction, with Star’s fingers hooking themselves into the waistband of Marco’s jeans. 

The combination of actions made Marco’s heart race as he felt his cheeks begin to heat up as the blood rushed to them…and to…somewhere else entirely – the latter of which it seemed Star was aware of, considering she once again began to rock her hips, pressing more firmly against him with each motion. Not that he was going to complain about that, of course. In fact, after a few moments of her continuing to move like that, he began to respond by rocking his own hips slightly, making the contact between them seem even more intimate than it already was. 

For several moments, the two of them both seemed to be entranced by what was happening between them, their current activity distracting them from any other thoughts – at least until Marco once again heard the sound of a zipper being undone. 

“S-Star…Wait” he said, pulling away somewhat reluctantly as he grabbed her wrist – gently, but still firmly enough to get her to stop what she was doing, and get her attention. 

Still keeping hold of the zipper, the Mewnian princess looked at her companion with a slight frown on her face, her expression a combination of confusion and concern, like she was trying to silently asking him what was wrong. 

Marco swallowed away the lump that had begun to form in this throat so that he could speak a little easier. “We…we shouldn’t…You’re my best friend and…I…I can’t…” 

Well, at least he was able to get words out, even if actually forming a complete sentence was out of his reach for the moment. He continued to stammer and stumble over his words for several seconds, before suddenly being cut off by Star gently pressing her lips against his. 

The kiss lacked the energy that had been there moments ago, but it had the same effect on Marco as all the others. He just stayed still for a moment, before finally returning the gesture with a kiss of his own. It was at that moment when Star moved away, and cupped Marco’s cheek with her hand, gently adjusting the position of his head so that he was looking directly into her eyes. 

“Marco…” she said, her voice softer than Marco had ever remembered it being before. She smiled softly before once again placing a feather-light kiss on his lips, and then pulling away slightly so the two of them were once again looking into one another’s eyes. 

“Marco…It’s okay.” Star said, her tone of voice still very soft, but still sincere enough to help assure Marco, and help him relax, at least a little. 

Still, they still had another problem to worry about…

”Maybe…um…Well, I was just thinking…It might be a good idea to…You know…Go somewhere else…” 

Once again, Star silenced him with a kiss, before answering with, “Upstairs?” and a brief nod in the direction of the stairs. 

The suggestion, combined with the look she gave him immediately after, made Marco’s mouth feel incredibly dry. He swallowed to help clear his throat, but didn’t trust himself to speak, and instead just gave a nod in response. 

That was enough for Star, and she grabbed his hand as she climbed off his lap, pulling him up from the couch as she stood up herself. Marco had just enough presence of mind to grab his discarded hoodie with his free arm before Star began to walk away from the sofa and towards the stairwell. 

She then made her way upstairs, leading him by the hand.

It took only a few moments for the two of them to reach Marco’s bedroom, and barely another minute passed between then and the two of them finding themselves atop his bed, with Marco laying on the mattress, holding Star close as the girl likewise laid on top of him. 

In that position, they resumed what they had been doing back on the couch, though now the kisses felt even more passionate, and it felt to Marco that there was even less space between them – even with their clothes acting as a very present and noticeable barrier. 

And even that didn’t seem like it was going to be an issue for much longer, if the way Star was acting was any indication. Without even breaking the kiss, she began to pull off his shirt, and only finally broke apart when the time came to fully remove the piece of apparel. 

At first, Marco was embarrassed by this, and instinctively moved to try and cover himself with his arms as best as he could. However, before he could do that, his feeling of self-consciousness faded, replaced with an undeniable feeling of pleasure when Star began to run her hands down his chest, her feather-light touch being enough to make him shudder slightly and cause his heart to start beating just a little faster. 

The feeling felt strange…but also incredible. 

While she continued what she was doing, he found his own hands moving – almost by their own accord, he could have sworn – as one was wrapped around her waist, and the other went to the top of the back of her dress, where he quickly grasped the small zipper that was located there.

Without fully thinking about it, he began to pull down the zipper…and it was the sound of the zipper being undone that made him stop. Hand still clasping the catch of the now half-undone zipper, he maneuvered slightly so that he was looking her in the eyes. 

“Star…You…You’re sure you’re…okay…with…” 

Before he could even finish his question, she answered; not with words, but with a kiss that was even deeper and more passionate than all the others that had come before it. With that confirmation, Marco pulled the zipper down the rest of the way; and – with somewhat shaky hands – continued by gently pushing the dress off completely – a task that Star seemed happy to help with. 

That simple action had quite the domino effect on the two teens; within moments, every piece of clothing they had had been removed and dropped onto the floor on either side of the bed. 

As they removed their clothes, the two also ended up changing position, with Marco now hovering over Star. 

Every part of his body was practically screaming at him to continue, and he could not deny that there was a very small part of him that felt the same way; but, despite her having made it clear before now that she was fine with where things seemed to have been going…he still had to be entirely sure. After all, he was sure they both knew that this was something that could not be undone. 

His heart was pounding, and he could have sworn it had moved out of his chest and into his throat. Marco swallowed in an attempt to alleviate this feeling, and was successful, to an extent. Despite this, he still didn’t trust himself to speak, instead doing his best to express his question through his expression, rather than words. 

The two of them stayed that way, just looking into one another’s eyes for what felt like an eternity, until Star answered the unspoken question – by wrapping each of her arms around him and pulling him into a very passionate embrace, while her legs simultaneously wrapped themselves around his waist, though whether an invitation or a demand, he had no idea. 

But, the basic meaning behind her response was clear and after that, all of the concerns that had been inside of him just seemed to melt away – as did everything else besides him and Star. 

Time seemed to both slow to a crawl and speed up at the same time, so that it simultaneously felt like hours had passed and like no time had passed at all. The incredible scent that had come into the room when they were back in the living room came back with a vengeance, filling Marco’s bedroom and seeming to urge the two on – an urge that they both seemed quite eager to obey, if the way they moved together and the near-constant kisses were any indication of such. And describing the feeling that he was experiencing throughout the whole thing was just as impossible as describing that aroma; in fact, the only description Marco could have given the experience was the same vague one that had come to his brain when the scent had first flooded his senses back in the living room – it was just incredible. 

There was a part of his mind that would occasionally pipe up a question of whether they should be doing this…but it was quickly overshadowed by incredible feeling that kept passing over him with every noise and every motion they made. 

He almost didn’t want it to end, but he could already tell that he was getting close to the end, and if the way she was acting was any indication, he had a feeling Star was, too. 

And, indeed, it wasn’t too long after this point that Star seemed to reach her limit, arching her back slightly and clutching Marco closer than ever before as she let out a sound that was somewhere between a shout and a moan. She had scratched his back slightly then, but he barely noticed, as within seconds, he had gotten to the same point, and the sudden rush of pleasure overrode anything else he might have felt at the moment. 

The feeling passed after a moment, and after that, the only noise in the room was the sound of each of them trying to catch their breath. 

Marco was still getting his heart rate back under control when Star lifted her upper body slightly, and gently pressed her lips against his; and he was quick to return the kiss, receiving a pleased little noise from the Mewnian princess as he did so. The kiss lasted less than a minute before Star laid back on the bed again, and Marco shakily lifted himself off her, moving instead to lay beside her, their bodies nearly touching, but not quite. 

The two of them just lay there for a few seconds, neither moving other than the rising and falling of their chests with each breath.

After a few seconds, Marco hesitantly moved to wrap his arms around Star’s waist, gently pulling her close. For a brief moment, she seemed to tense up at the action, and he did the same, worried that perhaps he had crossed a line. 

However, not even a second more had passed before she relaxed, only moving slightly to wrap her own arms around him. They lay just like that, the room silent but for the sound of their breathing, until each fell asleep, holding the other close.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Marco didn’t know how long he had been asleep, or even why he had fallen asleep in the first place, considering how early he remembered it being when he had drifted off. What he did know was that the dream he was having was wonderful, and he was in no hurry for it to end. 

So, when he felt something soft and light and strangely fragrant land on his nose, causing a slight tickling sensation, he was prepared to wipe it away so he could return to his dream.

However, when he went to move his arm, he brushed against something unfamiliar – and that touch was almost immediately followed by an equally unfamiliar sound: a faint buzzing, not unlike that of insect wings. 

The combination of the touch and the sound was enough to shock Marco into wakefulness – and he quickly found himself panicking about the situation that he was in. 

His mind was still adjusting to being awake, so he wasn’t able to immediately take everything in. But, one thing that he was instantly – and uncomfortably – aware of was the simple fact that he wasn’t wearing any clothes. That alone was enough to send his mind reeling, but it was nothing compared to the realization that came mere seconds later: he wasn’t alone. 

There, lying on the bed beside him was Star – who had changed back to normal during their evidently shared slumber. 

The poor boy was already barely keeping himself from freaking out…and then he realized that the alien girl was in a similar state of undress. This discovery made Marco flush, and he quickly fumbled around, trying to grab a piece of discarded clothing from the floor to cover himself at least a little. 

Unfortunately, not only was he unable to prevent a squeak of surprise from exiting his mouth when he discovered Star in bed with him, but when he went to reach for the clothes on the floor, his mattress creaked, with the noise seeming all the louder in the silent room. 

This was evidently enough to wake the girl, and she slowly pushed herself up into a sort of reclining position, moaning in protest about being awoken so suddenly. Her eyes remained closed for a few seconds – which were probably the most tense seconds of Marco’s life, as while his brain was telling him to just grab something to cover up with and get out of the room while she was still apparently half asleep, for some reason he was unable to take his eyes off her (though he was at least able to keep himself from looking at anything besides her face). Once those seconds had passed, Star opened her eyes…and almost immediately locked eyes with Marco. 

Apparently this was quite a shock to the young Mewman, as she let out a brief yelp of surprise as she practically catapulted herself off the bed, landing with a muffled thud on a small pile of purple hearts that Marco had just now realized were scattered throughout his bedroom.

“You okay?” Marco asked, wanting to make sure, but considering their current lack of clothes, deciding against it. 

“Yeah – I’m fine” Star answered. “Just let me find my clothes and I’ll just…go.” 

This statement was coupled with the sound of what sounded a bit like paper being shuffled about. 

While she was doing this, Marco decided to go back to looking for his own clothes on the other side of the bed; partially just because he felt extremely uncomfortable with the current situation, and partially to help ensure that he was looking in the exact opposite direction of Star whenever she left. 

He was quickly able to locate his underwear and pants, and pulled them on. He then began to shift through the petal-like hearts on the floor, trying to locate his shirt, or at the very least, his hoodie. However, he stopped in his search when he happened upon an article of clothing that definitely did not belong to him – a pink bra. 

Barely being able to keep himself from screaming at the discovery – and not being able to understand his actions, besides maybe just the desire to get the object away from him as quickly as possible – he grabbed one of the straps with two fingers and flung it over his shoulder as hard as he could, never even glancing in the direction he threw it; he had no idea whether Star was covered up or not, after all. 

Nervous about the possibility of discovering something else, he continued to search for the rest of his clothes for a few moments, before coming to the conclusion that his shirt and hoodie were most likely on the other side of the bed…meaning he had no way to get them. So, instead he just waited for a couple moments, until he heard his bedroom door open and then shut in quick succession. 

Once he was sure that he was alone, he walked over to the other side of the room, and began to shift through the hearts until he found both his shirt and his hoodie. 

He pulled on the shirt without any hesitation, but upon doing so decided that he felt a little too warm for the hoodie and decided to just lay the piece of clothing on his bed, where he joined it after a couple seconds of thought. 

There was a part of him that knew that he had to talk to Star about what happened between them, but he just wasn’t ready. He was still trying to process the whole thing himself, never mind trying to figure out how he was supposed to talk about it! 

So, instead he just lay on his bed, thinking about everything that had happened recently, and just taking in the aftermath of everything. 

Without anything to distract him, he once again became aware of the scent that filled his room: a less intense version of what he had experienced…earlier…but now there was an aspect of it that he could actually identify; and that aspect was the scent of cotton candy. 

Marco couldn’t help but blush a little upon this realization, as the reason he recognized the cotton candy aroma was because it was identical to the body wash that Star used almost every day. 

Though this discovery did make him start to wonder: where was the smell coming from, if Star herself was no longer in the room? He looked around the room, trying to determine the source of the aroma. The only thing that was different from normal was the hearts that were scattered around the room – the ones that looked just like the marks that had begun to cover Star’s face when she had first started going through mewberty. 

Wanting to check his hypothesis, Marco carefully picked up one of the heart and, with a touch of hesitation, held it up to his nose and gave it a little sniff. Sure enough, his theory was confirmed when he was suddenly hit with the smell of cotton candy, along with other scents that he couldn’t quite name. With the question answered, he let go of the petal-like heart and watched as it floated onto his bedspread. 

“What am I going to do with all these?” he wondered aloud to himself as he looked around at the hearts that pretty much covered his room and filled it with what he could only describe as “perfume”. 

Even though he wasn’t expecting an answer, he soon got one, as the heart that had landed on his bed suddenly began to dissipate, crumbling away until there was nothing left but the smell. Marco looked around to see that the hearts that were scattered about the floor also seemed to be fading away. 

“At least I won’t have to worry about cleaning those things up…” Marco muttered to himself, while also making a mental note to open his window to let out the smell, lest he have to deal with the fact that his bedroom smelled quite a bit like his best friend. But, he had more important things to worry about than what his room smelled like…

Marco took a deep breath and grabbed his hoodie, pulling it on before exiting the room, closing the door behind him. He made his way to Star’s bedroom, pausing outside the door for a few seconds before finally knocking. 

“Star?” he said, waiting until he heard a sound of acknowledgement from the other side of the door. “Can I come in? I…I think we need to talk about…this.” 

Shortly after he finished his sentence, the door opened to reveal Star – who was definitely back to normal, albeit looking much more disheveled than she had been before she had started going through her mewberty transformation. 

He stepped inside and despite what he had said just moments before, the two of them just sat next to each other in silence for a few moments, neither apparently being quite ready to actually start the conversation…though the occasional brief glances they would give each other were clear indicators that they wanted to say something. 

Finally, Star broke the silence. 

“Marco, I am _so_ sorry about all this” she said.

She sounded so upset that Marco tried to say something to help her feel better, or at least, keep her from putting all the blame on herself. “It’s not your fault, Star. It’s not anyone’s fault, really. Things just got kinda…really…out of ha-“

Before he could finish his statement, Star continued her own speech, seemingly unaware that he had even started talking.

“I knew that I was supposed to stay away from boys when I was going through mewberty, but I didn’t think anything like this would happen. I just thought I’d want a lot of hugs…some cuddles…maybe kissing…But it just came on so strong, and it was like…all I wanted was…” She blushed deeply as her voice trailed off, glancing nervously at him before directing her attention to the floor.

Marco was about to repeat what he had said before, but as soon as he realized what she had just said, his words caught in his throat, and he could have sworn his heart literally stopped beating for a second. 

“You…You mean that the whole reason you were…like that…was because of the mewberty?” he asked once he was able to find his voice again. 

“No…Yeah…Well, kinda…” Star began, looking like she was trying to figure out the answer for herself. She sighed and looked back at him. “I mean, it was still _me_ , and I definitely _wanted_ to, but I guess the mewberty is what really made me act so, well, crazy about it, you know?” 

It suddenly felt like the world had stopped for Marco, and every thought left his mind, besides what Star had just said. He had already felt confused over what had happened and what this could possibly mean for their friendship; but as soon as she said that, an overwhelming feeling of horror passed over him. While he had felt a little unsure about the whole thing, he had felt some degree of comfort from the assumption that she had been okay with everything that had gone on between them. There was a part of him that wanted to tell himself not to worry, because not only had she been happy to do everything with him, but she was the one who initiated the whole thing. Now he couldn’t keep the horrific question from entering his mind: was she really in control of what she was doing? 

“Marco?” Star asked, causing Marco to snap out of his thoughts and turn his attention back to her. “Are you okay? You kind of looked like you were about to be sick for a minute.” 

“Yeah…Yeah, I’m alright” he said, hoping that he sounded more confident in that statement than he felt. Based on the look Star was giving him, it seemed like he didn’t; or, at least, she was able to see through his attempt at faking confidence. 

Fortunately, she didn’t say anything about it, instead deciding to bring up something else. “You…You said something before, didn’t you? What was it?” 

Marco did his best to more or less repeat what he had said earlier, though now he doubted that he sounded quite as sure of himself when he told her that neither of them was to blame for what had happened. After hearing what the experience had been like from her end, he certainly didn’t feel blameless…But, even if he sounded less than sure of himself when he said it, the words did seem to comfort Star, at least a little, as her posture seemed to relax ever so slightly after receiving that reassurance. 

Still, there was an almost palpable tension in the air, and it hung between them as they once again sat together in silence for several minutes. 

“This is going to change everything, isn’t it?” Star finally asked, her tone making it abundantly clear that she didn’t want to actually ask the question, most likely because she was afraid of what the answer might be. 

Also not wanting to give what seemed like the obvious answer, Marco hesitated slightly. But, finally, he decided he had to answer her question, no matter how much he dreaded his own response.

“Y-Yeah…” 

At his answer, Star let out a frustrated groan and flopped backwards onto her bed, covering her face with her hands as she fell back.

“I can’t believe it. Our whole friendship ruined all because of one stupid mistake” she said. Marco opened his mouth to correct her, wanting to assure Star that even if this situation was going to mean things were different, that didn’t mean they were going to be as bad as she was assuming. Before he could say anything, Star spoke again. “Why can’t we just pretend this whole thing never even happened?”

Suddenly her eyes went wide and she let out an excited gasp as she muttered something to herself; and after that moment, it was like a switch had been flipped inside of her. Star practically threw herself off of the mattress, exclaiming excitedly: “Marco, that’s it!” 

“What’s it?” Marco asked, raising an eyebrow out of confusion towards her sudden shift in attitude. 

Still practically bouncing, Star replied, “We can just pretend this whole thing never happened! I mean, nobody besides us knows about it, so if we never talk about it again, it’s like it never happened, isn’t it?” 

Marco opened his mouth, about to insist that they couldn’t just run from what had happened between them, but closed it as he began to think more about what she was suggesting. 

He knew that pretending that this had never happened wasn’t really going to fix anything – even if they tried to act like it never happened, that wouldn’t change the fact that it did. At the same time, he couldn’t deny the fact that he wanted to forget about all this, if only to try and lessen the feeling of guilt that was sitting like a stone in the pit of his stomach. He knew that the feeling was likely never going to go away completely, but the idea of just letting things go back to the way they were before was just so enticing. 

He continued to debate the situation to himself for a few seconds, before finally coming to a decision. 

“I…guess that could work” he admitted. 

In response to him agreeing with her idea, Star smiled slightly and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. Despite his agreeing to pretend the recent events hadn’t happened, Marco still felt slightly uncomfortable with the contact after everything that had happened, and just sort of froze for a second at the physical contact. It didn’t take long for Star to apparently sense the slight tension from her friend, and she quickly ended the hug, her cheeks slightly pink from embarrassment. 

“I’m gonna go take a shower” Star announced suddenly. “I mean, unless you wanted to…” 

Marco shook his head in response. “No, you go ahead. I’m just going to go…clean up my room a little” he told her, unable to keep himself from blushing just a little; apparently it was going to be harder than he expected to really try and pretend this never happened. 

Star just nodded her head once before exiting the room, presumably to actually go and take the shower that she had mentioned before. 

Not feeling comfortable being in Star’s bedroom without her, Marco quickly got up to leave himself. 

As he made his way to the door, he swore he saw her spell book resting against the far wall out of the corner of his eye…despite the fact that he knew he had left it at school in his haste to get Star back home. But, he wasn’t going to question how the book got back; after everything that had gone on that day, that was the least of his concerns. Besides, after living with Star for so long, he was starting to realize that sometimes it was best not to question how or why certain things happened. 

He left Star’s bedroom and went to his own. When he entered, he found that the hearts that had been scattered around the floor were almost completely gone, with only a handful still lying about; though now the room was absolutely flooded with the smell from earlier. Marco opened his bedroom window in order to vent away the perfumed air, before just laying down on his bed, resting on top of the covers. 

So many thoughts were swarming in his head, ranging from what had happened between him and Star to thinking about how they were going to handle the inevitable call from the school related to the fear and mild destruction Star had caused while she was transformed. 

But, most of all, he was thinking about what he had to his best friend, and that thought was making him sick with guilt. Despite what he had said about how it wasn’t anyone’s fault that things had gotten out of hand, he couldn’t ignore the voice in the back of his mind that was practically screaming at him, reminding him of what he had done.

He should have realized that she wasn’t in her right mind from the start – the way she was acting should have been proof enough of that – and stopped the whole thing before it ever started. But, as the voice kept reminding him, he didn’t stop it; quite the opposite, in fact – he had enjoyed it; and that just made him feel even worse about the whole thing. Not only had he taken advantage of his best friend, but he had enjoyed the result of it, at least at the time. 

Now, just thinking about the whole thing was literally making him feel sick to his stomach. 

Marco shook his head, trying to clear it of the thoughts that were causing the twisting feeling in the pit of his stomach. He had agreed with Star that they should both just do their best to pretend that this had never happened. The last thing he wanted was for their friendship to be ruined all because of his…mistake; and he knew that if he kept dwelling on what had happened, that was definitely a possibility. So, he needed to try his best to actually uphold the agreement to just act like the events of the past couple hours never happened. 

Of course, the little voice in the back of his head kept nagging him, reminding him that he would never be able to forget that all of this had happened, no matter how much he or Star wanted to pretend otherwise. But, if pretending meant that things could go back to the way things were before, then that was all that really mattered to Marco.

So, he would pretend, and hopefully everything would just go back to normal…or, at least, as normal as life could be for the two of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a story inspired by a pretty unique place - a post on the SVTFOE subreddit, created by a good friend of mine on that website, Malthus1. He also helped more directly with creating this story and the series it will eventually be a part of, assisting with things such as lore/world building and character development, as well as dialogue and scene development in some of the later chapters.
> 
> And, just as a warning, things in this story, as well as the series, are going to get fairly dark at points.


	2. Chapter 2

For what was probably the first time in her life, Star found herself waking up early without the use of either an alarm clock, or someone trying to force her out of her slumber. There was a part of her that was kind of proud that she’d actually managed to wake up before Marco…which quickly vanished as she realized why she was waking up so early. 

Covering her mouth with one hand in an attempt to help hold back what she knew was coming, the young princess rushed into the bathroom that she and Marco shared, managing to all but collapse in front of the toilet just in time to empty the contents of her churning stomach into the bowl. Once she had recovered from the ordeal, Star stood up and went back into her room. 

“Really shouldn’t have had that second helping of desserts last night” she muttered to herself as she fell back onto her bed. 

Out of curiosity, she allowed her eyes to wander over to the clock, to see exactly what time it was. To her surprise – and slight annoyance, since she was hoping she’d get to have more time to sleep – she hadn’t actually woken up all that early. In fact, there was barely more than half an hour between the current time and when she and Marco would typically leave for school. 

Letting out a sigh at the realization that she didn’t really have the time to go back to bed before she’d be woken up anyway, Star reluctantly got out of bed and began to get ready for the day. 

She quickly went through her clothes until she found the outfit she wanted to wear for the day, then started to change from her pajamas into her actual clothes. 

She had changed and was just about to use a quick spell to zap her pajamas clean so she wouldn’t have to worry about washing them, when something very odd happened. 

Without her saying – or even really thinking about – a spell, her wand’s crystal suddenly began to glow, and shot out a burst of magical energy, which hit the nightgown and socks that she’d left on the floor. 

Star watched in confusion as the night clothes began to bounce around the room, as though filled by some sort of invisible creature, surrounded by a faintly glowing light. 

After a few seconds of watching her clothes move around on their own, she remembered what she had been trying to do and fired a spell at the now animate clothing. The nightgown and socks gave a brief shudder as the magic hit them, before once again falling limp on the bedroom floor. 

“Okay, that was really weird” Star said aloud to herself as she examined her wand, giving it a little shake to try and determine if maybe something was loose inside. 

When that test offered no results, she simply shrugged and performed the spell she’d been planning to do before, magically cleaning her pajamas and sending them back into her closet where they’d stay until she needed them for another night. 

With that situation taken care of, Star decided to just relax for a few moments – feeling no reason to rush things, considering she had gotten up early today – before heading back into the bathroom to finish getting ready for the day. 

After quickly washing her face, she grabbed her wand, ready to enchant her hairbrush so she could brush her hair hands-free. However, before she could actually cast the spell, she heard a very familiar and very faint humming noise, less than a second before her wand once again shot out a random burst of magic. 

Star flinched slightly at this. The wand had been pointing at her head when it went off, and as she’d learned when she had been getting ready for the Blood Moon Ball, doing magic on or around her face did not feel good – not at all. 

Fortunately, when she opened her eyes and looked in the mirror, she discovered that the spell hadn’t done anything bad at all. Quite the opposite, actually; apparently it had hit her headband, as the usual devil horns were now replaced with a green band with purple flowers attached to it. 

“Hmm, not bad” Star said after a moment of examining her new look in the mirror. “It might be fun to mix it up a little…” 

But, while the flowers were cute, she didn’t feel like they were quite the right fit for her, at least for today. So, she began repeating the spell, changing her headband into various different forms: a pirate captain’s hat, a cute little fez, a unicorn horn headband complete with ears and a sparkly mane; all of them were fun, but none seemed quite right. Finally, she transformed the headband into a green band with little cacti attached to where the horns would have been on her usual choice of accessory. 

“Cacti for the win” she declared after giving a cry of delight at seeing the new headband. 

Sadly, she barely had a moment to admire her new look when the bathroom door slammed open, followed closely by the sound of puppy barking and Marco frantically exclaiming, “Out of the way!” 

Star didn’t even have time to ask what had gotten the boy so freaked out when he slammed into her in his rush to get to the vanity, knocking her to the ground.

“I overslept!” Marco cried, obviously despaired by this predicament. 

From her spot on the bathroom floor, Star watched with mild concern as Marco grabbed both his toothbrush and hairbrush…and proceeded to use each of them in the wrong place, rubbing his teeth with the hairbrush and scrubbing his hair with the toothbrush.  
Apparently there was a reason why Marco usually got up so early, if this was how mixed up he got when he overslept…

Before she could actually say anything, Marco dropped the two brushes and once again began rushing around the room, this time looking for his hoodie. 

While he located and pulled on the garment, Star got up and glanced at the clock on the wall, trying to determine how late they’d be. 

Upon looking she discovered that while they’d probably be a little late, it wouldn’t be by that much. Hoping to calm her friend, Star said this to Marco, claiming that they’d still be able to make it school by the start of first period. 

With his hoodie still backward and his face covered by the hood, Marco protested, “This isn’t about learning! This is about love!” 

He managed to pull down the hood as he said the second line, and with his face now uncovered, he began to explain the situation. Apparently he always made sure to get to school by a certain time each and every day, because exactly one minute after, Jackie Lynn Thomas would arrive, and the two of them would exchange nods. 

“It’s kind of our thing” Marco explained proudly. Okay, now Star had to admit that story was really cute, but then she realized something. 

“Wait…a nod?” she asked, “You don’t even say ‘Hi’?” 

She didn’t mean to sound accusatory, but she couldn’t help wondering; if this had been going on for as long as Marco was implying, it just seemed weird that he hadn’t even said “Hello” to Jackie by this point. 

She almost immediately felt bad about it, as Marco briefly looked a little embarrassed after she said that. 

However, he quickly recovered – more or less – by insisting that he was working up to that point – and he even had a plan all worked out for how he wanted things to go with Jackie; apparently this nodding thing was step four. He even showed her a piece of paper with all the steps written out to help prove that he wasn’t lying about having a plan. 

One of the laser puppies suddenly shot off his laser blasts, hitting Marco’s hand and making him drop the list with a yelp of pain. He tried to tell the puppies to get down, but they didn’t listen, instead just continuing to run around the bathroom, occasionally blasting poor Marco with their lasers. 

At one point, he fell to the ground, which the puppies seemed to take as an invitation to play. 

“Bad laser puppy!” Marco scolded, attempting to wave one of the puppies – who had started playfully gnawing on his leg – away. He looked over in the direction of the clock, and his expression changed from one of mild annoyance to one of panic. 

“It’s 7:54! I’m not gonna make it!” he exclaimed, frantically trying to get the puppies to move away from him, as though that would help him get to school within the next minute. 

Still obviously freaked out by the situation, he looked over at Star and asked, clearly out of desperation, “Can’t you just…magically stop time, or something?” 

Star couldn’t keep herself from scoffing a little at the suggestion. She didn’t want to seem mean, but the idea that she could just stop time just sounded so crazy, even to her. Still, she decided to humor Marco a little, if only because she was hoping that doing so would help him calm down.

“Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah” she said, waving her hands slightly in a halfway joking manner. “Easy-peasy time freezie.” 

A sudden burst of what looked like a clock shaped light emerging from the bell of her wand caught Star’s attention as she stared at the object in her hand for a second. Once the light faded, something else caught her attention – the sound of what seemed like a very old, very slow clock echoing through the room. 

Based on his reaction, it seemed like Marco was also aware of the sound…but if the way the puppies were acting was any indication, they didn’t hear a thing. 

However, that was far from the most noteworthy thing about the laser puppies at the moment. Mere seconds after they had run away from Star and Marco, they just…stopped. 

Not like they just suddenly stopped running – they just completely _stopped_ , frozen mid-movement as they were in the middle of running. Even the laser beams that they had begun to fire out of their eyes just appeared to stop in the middle of the air. The sound of the ticking clock seemed to vanish as everything besides the two teenagers went still and silent. 

Once they had recovered from the initial confusion of what happened, Marco went over to the frozen figures of the laser puppies and cautiously touched the frozen laser blast with his finger…and experiencing a minor stinging sensation as punishment for his curiosity. 

He stood up and turned his attention to Star, asking, “Do you know what you just did?” 

“Uh, stopped time?” Star responded, currently unsure if she was supposed to be bothered by this development or not. 

“You stopped time! Now I can get to school and nod at Jackie!” Marco exclaimed, clearly ecstatic with the current situation. He took hold of Star’s wrist and began to head towards the door, instructing for her to “Hurry.” 

As Marco tried to pull her towards the bathroom door, something suddenly dawned on Star. 

“School?” she asked, before stopping in place and grabbing Marcos’ cheeks in her hands. 

“But it’s a freeze day!” she practically sang in excitement…and based on the way Marco’s eyes lit up at this reminder, it seemed like that was enough to get him to realize the implications of that statement.

The two of them began to cry out with excitement as they rushed out of the house, determined to make the most of this unexpected “holiday”. 

They first went to the park and decided to pull a bit of a prank, with Star magically giving everyone in the park a funny mustache, including all of the animals and even a baby sitting in his carriage. Delighted at the image of literally everyone having a mustache, the two teens simply stayed and enjoyed their work for a few moments, laughing at the sight before finally deciding they’d had enough and putting everything back to normal. 

After just wandering around for a little bit, Star noticed something out of the corner of her eye as they walked past someone’s house – a faintly glowing light coming from the window. 

That was enough to catch her attention and get her to pause, at which point she was able to see exactly where the light was coming from: a candle on top of a huge cake. 

“Marco, look at that!” Star said, grabbing Marco and pulling him over so he could see the cake as well. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” 

They didn’t need to exchange more than a single glance for Star to know that she and Marco were indeed on the same page regarding the situation, and within moments they were making their way inside the house - being careful not to disturb anything or anyone as they entered. 

As they approached the cake on the table, Star noticed someone wearing a beret and stripped shirt…someone who looked very familiar once she looked at his face. 

“Charl-“ she started to say to herself, before remember that Marco was still within earshot, and the fact that she had made a promise to the boy; even if he wouldn’t know she’d broken it, the princess still didn’t want to betray the poor guy like that, especially since it did seem like he was keeping up his part of their bargain. 

Instead, she turned her attention to the cake, happily exclaiming, “This looks incredible!” 

Without really thinking too much about it, she pulled out her wand and performed a quick spell on the cake, which instantly transformed it from one huge cake into several perfectly-sized slices, each served on a plate. 

She picked up two plates and handed one to Marco. 

Once they had their cake, they sat down and began to eat their fill – though Marco did suggest that they take a moment to put away at least some of the cake so the people at the party could eat it when they stopped being frozen. 

“After all, I know I’d hate it if something I wanted to eat just vanished like that” he pointed out. 

Star agreed and helped him put several of the cake slices to the side, while also writing a brief note explaining where most of the cake had gone. 

However, despite putting the majority of the cake aside, there was still plenty for the two of them to enjoy…and enjoy they did.

In fact, Star was enjoying one of her slices so much that she didn’t notice that she’d somehow eaten the still-lit candle until she bit into something that definitely did not taste like cake. She stuck out her tongue, where the candle was standing, and the two of them just share a laugh for a few moments. 

Once they were done with the cake, they decided to see if there was anything interesting going on at time-frozen school. However, for Star, the excitement faded soon after they got onto school grounds, replaced with an overwhelming feeling of nausea. 

She tried her best to ignore it, trying to focus instead on having fun, but it soon became clear that in this little battle of mind versus body…her body was definitely going to be the winner. 

Desperate to make sure she didn’t get sick in front of him, Star shoved Marco out of the way as she rushed into the –thankfully mostly empty – girls’ bathroom. 

Even after throwing up what had to be everything in her stomach, she still felt a little sick, and decided to just stay in the bathroom for a moment to recover, taking the time to wash the taste out of her mouth before exiting, gently rubbing her cramping stomach in an attempt to soothe the pains. 

Marco was standing outside, waiting for her; which wasn’t at all surprising, considering she had shoved him in her hurry to get into the bathroom. 

“Are you okay?” he asked, concern evident in his expression as well as his tone of voice. 

Even though she still felt a little sick, Star didn’t want to make Marco worry, so she just waved her hand dismissively. 

“Yeah, I’m fine” she told him. “I guess that cake was a little off or something, that’s all.” 

Even as she gave the excuse, she knew that it was a flimsy one, especially considering Marco had eaten just as much of the same cake, and so far, he seemed completely fine. And she could tell that Marco didn’t quite believe her…But, thankfully, she quickly noticed something that allowed her to change the subject – Lars, the school bully, giving a wedgie to another student.

Happy to get off the current subject, she pulled Marco over to the bully and the unfortunate victim. 

Not a word had to be exchanged between the two friends as they went into action, Marco pulling their classmate out of Lars’s grasp, while Star decided to give the bully a taste of his own medicine by yanking his own underwear up over his head. 

After taking a moment to appreciate their act of justice, they glanced around, seeing if there was anything else to do in the frozen school. After determining that there was nothing else they want to do at school (at least, at the moment), they once again went off in search of ways to have fun before they had to put an end to their freeze day. 

And they definitely succeeded in their goal of having fun. In fact, they did so much – sharing a picnic on top of some parked cars (which did make Star feel slightly nauseous after eating, though fortunately the feeling passed quickly enough and nothing…came out of it); visiting Marco’s karate dojo, where he got to literally knock Jeremy Birnbaum out of the air; having fun with a frozen Ludo by taking a photo of him with Star’s new cactus headband, and so much more – that Star could scarcely believe it when Marco said that, “That was the funnest sixty hours of my life!” 

If it weren’t for the fact that Marco would have probably kept track of something like that, she probably wouldn’t have believed that their freeze day had lasted so long. Sadly, for as much fun as this little “break” from the passage of time had been, they had agreed that it was probably best to get things moving again. 

Hence why they were making their way back to school at the moment, getting to the place where Marco had told Star that he’d always wait for Jackie so they could do their daily “nod-exchange.” 

Star took notice of, and pointed out, Jackie skateboarding up the way. 

“I better get into optimal nod position” Marco said, before doing just that. 

Once he was positioned against the lockers, he instructed Star to undo her spell. She was about to do just that, when she came up with what she thought was a great idea. 

“Or”, she began, “maybe now’s the time to move onto the next step of your crazy plan. You could talk to her…” 

The suggestion seemed to make Marco extremely nervous, as his face briefly took on a look of panic before he started rambling off excuses. 

“I’ll just do the nod today” he insisted, much to Star’s disappointment. 

Despite being unable to hide the fact that she was less than thrilled with her friend’s choice, Star still went to start time up again, declaring, “Easy-peasy time unfreezie!” 

When nothing seemed to change, she repeated the incantation again, this time even striking a little pose in the hopes that maybe that would have some kind of an impact. 

Seeing that everything and everyone was still frozen, Star couldn’t keep herself from letting out a letting out a nervous sound as she began to examine her wand. Maybe the weird random spells it was firing off earlier were a sign that there was something up with it…She tapped on the wand, trying to see if there was some reaction, but getting no results. 

She then stole a glance at Marco, and saw that he was clearly worried about the fact that time was still frozen; so, she decided to try and pull a little joke, in an attempt to hopefully cheer him up a little. 

Unfortunately, based on his reaction when he saw her pretending to be frozen as well, her attempt at a joke had the complete opposite effect. Even when she revealed that she was just messing with him, Marco looked more annoyed than amused. 

“Okay, okay, let’s just go home and check out my spell book. There’s been at dozens of queens writing spells in it ever since it was made – I’m sure one of them must have done something like this at some point. And obviously they figured out how to fix it, so the answer’s gotta be in the book” Star said, pulling out her dimensional scissors and opening a rift that would allow them to instantly travel from the school, into her bedroom. 

As soon as they were inside, she dropped to the floor in front of her bed and pulled out the huge book of spells from underneath it. 

“Okay, magic instruction book – instruct me” she said as she opened the book to a random page, only to discover Glossaryck frozen in a very uncomfortable-looking pose. “Oh no, Glossaryck’s frozen too…” 

Now Star was starting to really get worried; she knew that Glossaryck was supposed to be really powerful, so if this spell was effecting him, that could not mean anything good. 

Marco, on the other hand, didn’t seem at all concerned about Glossaryck – quite the opposite, actually. 

“Good. I never liked that guy. Scrape the sides, buddy” he said as he flipped the page, making Glossaryck vanish inside the book once more. 

Star wondered for a moment what exactly had caused Marco to be so upset with her mentor, but then remembered that she had much more important things to worry about at the moment. 

She began to flip through the pages, looking for something that sounded at least similar to their situation. At first, she just found other examples of what sounded like pretty crazy spells done by previous queens or princesses. 

Apparently someone made a dimension explode (Star didn’t even want to think about how that could have happened), and somebody else had managed to delete gravity. 

Okay, now Star had to admit that did sound like it’d be kind of fun to see…

”Don’t get any ideas” Marco’s warning tone made Star realize that she hadn’t been able to contain her intrigue at the idea mentioned on the page, and she gave a sheepish chuckle before once again turning the page – this time to exactly what they were looking for. 

Fortunately, it didn’t sound like it’d be all that hard to fix the problem. All they had to do was go to this “Plains of Time” place and push something called the Wheel of Progress. And the fact that they knew exactly where to go just made things even easier, since that meant they could just use the scissors to get there almost instantly – which they did almost immediately after Star read the instructions in the book. 

Upon exiting the portal and stepping into the new dimension, the two teens couldn’t help but comment on how strange the place was, compared to the other dimensions they’d been to in the past. 

After reminiscing – and shuddering at said memory – about one of their previous adventures, Star noticed something that definitely looked important. 

“Look!” she cried, pointing at a giant wheel not too far away from where they had come in. “That must be it!” 

As they approached the wheel, Star couldn’t help but give out an impressed noise – the thing already looked pretty big from the distance, but up close, it was absolutely enormous. Marco, meanwhile, made another observation: “It’s like a giant hamster wheel.” 

That apparently gave him an idea, as once Star questioned how they were supposed to get the wheel moving, Marco insisted that he knew what to do, before climbing inside the wheel. 

Star watched for several minutes as Marco attempted to get the wheel moving again, to no success. Seeing that her friend’s method was not going to work, Star decided to try moving the wheel her own way. 

She summoned a magical raccoon to make the wheel spin…but instead of making the wheel move, the newly created spell simply bounced around inside of the thing, before firing out and landing behind Star, where it took physical form. 

Suddenly, a new voice broke through the air, catching the attention of both teenagers; not unsurprisingly, as they had figured they were the only ones who were unaffected by the time-freeze spell, not to mention this place had seemed like it was pretty deserted. 

“Magic won’t work on that. You have to use the magic of toesies” explained a strange blue, bald man with a long beard, who was playing with some rocks a bit away from where Star and Marco had been trying to move the wheel. 

After he introduced himself (and his rock…) as Father Time, Star and Marco realized that he was the one who could help them fix the problem – he just had to get back on the wheel and start running again! 

Unfortunately, despite looking like he was pretty old – and definitely being that old, if he was apparently running on the wheel forever before the spell knocked him off – Father Time acted more like a little kid, with how much he seemed to be entertained by the smallest things, including twigs and mud.

Star even tried to convince him to get back on the wheel by promising that he could take some mud to play with while he ran, but even that didn’t work. Soon enough, they found themselves chasing him throughout the dimension, including crossing a river of clocks that messed with their ages as they hopped from clock to clock, until they reached the other side and turned back to normal. Unfortunately, shortly after they reached the riverbank, they lost track of Father Time.

They frantically looked around, desperate to find anything that could lead them in the right direction. 

“I think he went in there” Star said, pointing in the direction of a huge building. It was a safe enough assessment, considering that building was the only place within a visible distance that looked like it could have given someone a place to hide.

Not wanting to risk Father Time getting farther away, they rushed inside of the building, hoping to catch him before he could run again. 

However, when they stepped inside and saw exactly what was inside of the building, their minds were temporarily taken off their current mission. 

Pretty much every inch of the each of the very tall walls of the building was covered with television screens, each showing a different scene from what looked like various points of history from all sorts of different dimensions. 

Marco pointed at one of the screens, indentifying it as the “Battle of Lexington” before proudly stating that he had “Nailed it”. 

Star was about to look around the room, seeing if there were any scenes that she could recognize, when a panel in the ceiling suddenly opened up and what looked like a long tube emerged from it, stopping right in front of her. 

Taken aback by what had just happened, Star just stared at the device as the end opened up, looking just like an eye – it even had little wires that resembled eyelashes! 

After staring at her for a moment, the eye closed, and the screens on the walls went from showing scenes from the history of the universe as a whole, to showing nothing but static. However, that didn’t last long, as less than a second later, the static was replaced on every screen with a very familiar image for the Mewnian princess. 

“It..It’s me” Star said, staring at the screen directly in front of her. 

Sure enough, the image that was currently presented on the screens was of Star as a baby, playing with her blocks and a plush monster toy. Her surprise quickly turned to delight as the screen began to cycle through various points in her life - some she remembered only vaguely, others that were incredibly clear to her. 

“Watching me is fun” she commented as she watched the little clip-show of her life with a smile upon her face. 

The smile faded as the video on the screen once again changed, this time showing Star, sitting on her bed with a bored expression on her face and a book resting open on her lap. 

Past-Star half-heartedly flipped through the pages of her book, occasionally muttering things like “It is very important to avoid physical contact with the opposite sex once the mewberty transformation has begun.” 

However, what really caught Star’s attention was the next thing her past self said: “And if you experience nausea, combined with random bursts of magical energy or unplanned spell-casting, you are – bored. I’m bored.” 

The clip then showed Star tossing the book behind her, where it slid between the wall and her bed until it was out of sight completely, presumably hidden underneath the bed. 

Once again, the image on the television screen changed, this time showing Star as she currently was, standing in the hall with a somewhat thoughtful expression on her face. 

“This place must keep track of everything we’ve done in our lives” Marco observed, looking somewhat excited by the prospect…until the eye turned its sights on him, at which point he briefly looked over at Star, and the two shared a quick, slightly panicked glance. 

Neither had to say a word to know what the other was thinking: what if Marco’s “clip-show” showed something from that day – the day they hadn’t talked about since it happened just over a month ago? What were they going to do if they were forced to relive that day? 

Thankfully, when the screens changed to show Marco’s life, no scenes from that day showed up. 

Instead, they each showed a variation of the same scene: Marco nodding at Jackie. The only thing that ever changed was how old the two of them were in the image, and exactly where the exchange happened. By the end, it seemed as though the “clips” were simply on loop, repeating the same thing over and over. 

Marco’s face fell as he watched the repeated scene play out over and over again on the screen, looking like something was dawning on him with each passing second. 

“Wow…I’ve been nodding for a long time” he said as the screens reached the present and stopped showing the clips of his life.

Star, noting that he seemed less than happy with his realization, gently placed a comforting hand on his shoulders. She was about to say something to try and make him feel better, when a new voice suddenly broke through the silence. 

“Hey guys! Isn’t this place incredible? It’s like we’re living in the future” Father Time said from where he was playing with a little spring doorstopper only a few feet away from where Star and Marco were standing. 

With the help of a little emerald snake strike spell, it didn’t take long at all for the two teens to capture Father Time. They started to lead him away, hoping to get him back on the Wheel of Progress as quickly as possible. 

Suddenly, their progress was stopped when the eye appeared in front of Father Time; and for the first time since they’d met him, Father Time honestly looked scared. 

Just as it did for the two teens, the eye made it so that the screens in the hall all showed scenes of Father Time’s life up to that point. And his story was not a happy one, being even more repetitive than Marco’s had been. 

At least for Marco, there were slight variants to the scene each time it played, even at the end. For Father Time, every image was the same: him doing nothing but running on the wheel as the days passed; the only thing that ever changed was his expression, as it slowly changed from a look of pride and determination, to a look of either extreme boredom…or despair.

Once the clip-show of his life was done, Father Time almost seemed to become resigned. Even after Star and Marco let go of him, he didn’t run away; instead, he just kept walking in the direction of the wheel. Though, it did seem like he was unable to hide the fact that – while he was accepting that he had to keep up this task – he was not exactly happy about it, as the two friends heard a slightly bitter tone in his voice as he said, “It’s only for all eternity.” 

As they watched him walk away, Marco sighed. 

“We can’t just make him” he said, and Star agreed. After seeing what the poor man’s existence was like, it just didn’t seem right to force him to go back to being able to do nothing but run in one spot for the rest of forever. But, as much as she would love to let him go back to just having fun exploring the Plains of Time and having fun with his mud and rocks, there was still the issue of getting time back to normal. 

“Maybe there’s another way to turn that giant wheel” Star said, sounding unsure of herself, but still wanting to hope that they could find a solution where everyone could be happy. It was at that moment that they noticed Father Time happily petting a giant hamster. 

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Star asked Marco with a grin. Based on him returning the grin, it seemed like the answer to that question was an affirmative. 

However, before Marco could actually say anything, Star ran over to Father Time and the hamster, practically dancing with excitement from her idea. Within moments, and with a bit of help from her magic, she managed to put her plan into motion; and soon enough, the Wheel of Progress went from being stuck in one place, to being almost like a little chariot, complete with a chair for Father Time to sit on, and reins to attach to four hamsters who were lined up in front of it, ready to pull it along. 

“Actually, I was thinking…Never mind, it works” Marco said as he approached Star’s creation, which she was currently showing off to Father Time. 

“Now you can go anywhere you want” she happily explained to Father Time as he climbed into the seat and took hold of the reins, “and keep the wheel moving!” 

Father Time thanked the two of them, offering to let them take some of his mud collection as a token of gratitude. 

When they declined, he simply shrugged and gave them a warning to not stop time again, before starting to get his hamsters – and by extension, the Wheel of Progress – moving along the plains. Star and Marco simply watched as he rolled away…before something dawned on them. 

“Wait…the wheel’s moving” Star stated. 

“We’ve got to get back!” the two of them said in unison as they suddenly realized what that meant. 

Star frantically pulled out her scissors and opened a portal to school, specifically in front of the lockers where they had seen Jackie frozen earlier. 

Fortunately, Marco was able to recover from his less-than-graceful exit from the portal fast enough to share his usual nod with Jackie. 

However, a few seconds later, he did something new: he called out to Jackie, getting her to stop and look back at him. It wasn’t much, just a simple “Hey, Jackie”, but that was more than enough to get Star excited as she watched the scene unfold before her. 

A few seconds later, Jackie said her goodbyes and skateboarded away; at which point Marco started breathing heavily, looking like that brief exchange had taken quite a lot out of him.

“You did it! You finally talked to her!” Star cheered as she ran over to her friend. She could barely contain her pride and excitement at this, which she knew was a big accomplishment for him. “What happened to waiting for the perfect time?” 

“Well, all of a sudden I realized: if you have the time, why waste it” Marco said by way of explanation. 

With that taken care of, the two of them started to make their way to their first period class, Marco happily saying, “Looks like I’m finally getting somewhere” as they walked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The rest of the day went by as usual – well, for the most part. 

While nothing overly noteworthy happened in regards to their classes or their classmates, Star did find herself having a harder time concentrating than usual.

Part of it was because of her wand – it was once again firing off random spells, oftentimes when she wasn’t even thinking about using magic! Thankfully none of the spells were too crazy or dangerous, so she only had to worry about undoing them and dealing with being scolded for disrupting class. 

However, her random spell-casting, combined with the fact that she kept feeling like she was going to be sick throughout the day, kept her thinking about the last memory she’d seen of her life: the scene of her reading from the _Mewberty and You_ book that her mother had sent her. 

Of course she had remembered reading from the book (she had only gotten it about a month and a half ago, and read – or, more accurately skimmed – it almost immediately after receiving it), but she didn’t remember that last point until she saw it again. The fact that it seemed to be describing her current situation so perfectly didn’t really help in regards to her forgetting about it, either. 

At first she had tried to ignore all the weird stuff that had been happening to her over the past couple of days (including the freeze day as part of that, of course), but now that there was apparently something that could explain what was going on…Well, the thought just kept nagging her throughout the day.

In fact, it was bugging her so much that, as soon as she and Marco got home, she quickly excused herself before rushing upstairs to her bedroom. 

Once inside, she began to rummage under her bed, reaching near the headboard until she managed to get her hands on the book and pulled it out, the cover coated in a thin layer of dust from being forgotten for so long. 

“Okay, let’s see what this book thinks is going on” Star said aloud to herself, sitting on the bed with the book on her lap. 

She quickly flipped through the pages, glancing to see if she saw any words that she recognized. Finally, after a few moments of flipping and scanning, she found a familiar-sounding paragraph – near the end of the book, in a section titled “Precautions”. 

A good chunk of the paragraph sounded vaguely familiar, like she knew that she’d at least glanced at parts of it back when she had decided to flip through the book. But, what she was really looking for were some specific words – the last thing she read before throwing the book aside. 

She continued to scan the paragraph, until she finally found the words she was looking for: “And if you experience bouts of nausea, combined with random bursts of magical energy or unplanned spell-casting, you are…pregnant.” 

All of a sudden, it felt like time had just stopped for Star as the word she’d just said echoed in her mind. Out of shock, she allowed the book to drop from her hands and land on the bed in front of her; but she barely even noticed that she wasn’t still holding the thing, with how her mind was acting at the moment. 

There were a million thoughts racing through her head, going by so quickly that she couldn’t even begin to keep track of them; she only knew that she was freaking out. 

After what simultaneously felt like less than a second and an eternity, Star was finally able to think somewhat clearly. 

“No…No…There is no way…” she said, picking up the book again and frantically flipping through the pages. There had to be some other explanation for why she was experiencing these symptoms – there just had to be.

She kept flipping through the pages of the book, hoping to find something, anything, that could offer an alternative explanation. 

Unfortunately, every sentence she read either didn’t offer any help at all, or worse, just seemed to confirm her fears. 

Finally, after almost five minutes of near-constant page-flipping and rereading, Star had to admit defeat; and that meant admitting the unimaginable. 

“I…I’m gonna have a baby” she said, her voice so soft that even she could barely hear it. 

Despite having given up on trying to deny the fact, saying it out loud didn’t make it feel any less surreal, or any less terrifying. If anything, accepting that this was happening just made the whole thing even scarier. 

Star could feel her eyes starting to fill up with tears as the weight of what she’d just learned fully settled in her mind; though whether they were tears of sadness, frustration, fear, or even all three, even she could not say for sure. 

“What am I going to do?” Star asked, putting her face in her hands as the tears began to flow down her cheeks. “I have no idea how to take care of a baby. And my parents are going to kill me when they find ou-“ 

A sudden realization struck her at the moment and she cut herself off with a gasp. 

No…her parents wouldn’t kill _her_ when they found out about this – they’d be so disappointed and upset, but they wouldn’t kill her – at least, not literally. But, as she said those words, she remembered something important; she didn’t even remember how she’d learned about it, but the memory of what she had learned was very vivid in her mind.

It was one of, if not the most ancient laws of Mewni, as old as the kingdom itself; a law regarding the very situation that she was now in. And, according to that law, she wouldn’t be killed…but somebody would have to die: her baby. 

“No…No…No, no, no, no, no” Star whispered to herself, her voice quivering with fear as she unconsciously placed a hand on her stomach. 

But, no matter how much she didn’t want it to be true, she knew that she couldn’t change the facts.

According to the law, if a princess got pregnant without being married first, then her baby would be killed and she would be sent to live in exile for the rest of her life as punishment, never able to return to Mewni ever again. 

She also knew her parents would do what the law said they had to; they wouldn’t be happy about it, but she knew they would still do it. 

Maybe she could convince her father to bend the rules, but that wouldn’t matter in the long run. Her father might be willing to bend the rules, but Star knew her mother well enough to know that she would never break the law, especially not the most important law in all of Mewni. 

She knew what was going to happen to her – and to her baby – if her parents found out about this. 

She didn’t care much about being exiled – she would miss her family, yes, but not having to worry about becoming queen one day was almost a relief; but, no matter how scared she was of the idea of having a baby, the idea of having to give up her child filled her with an almost indescribable aching feeling. 

The feeling was so overwhelming that Star could only come to one conclusion about what to do. 

“I have to keep this a secret” she muttered, somehow managing to sound much more confident than she felt at the moment. 

However, that confidence did slowly grow as she thought more about her decision, and realized that while it wouldn’t be super easy, it would be doable. She didn’t know much about pregnancy, but she did remember one important detail about how the process worked for a Mewnian princess like herself: the pregnancy would never show, no matter how far along she got. 

According to her mother, the babies of Mewnian princesses didn’t grow inside of their bellies, but instead they grew inside of the same place where their magic came from. Star had no idea why it worked that way, but the reason didn’t really matter in the long run. 

What mattered is that this meant that, as long as she didn’t say anything about it, nobody would ever be able to tell that anything was different about her, and her secret would be safe. And she knew that it would be easy to keep quiet about the whole thing, so that meant everything would work out just fine.

Just as she was starting to relax a little, there came a knock on the door. 

Normally she would barely react to the noise, but considering what she had just been dealing with, she figured that she was somewhat justified in being a little freaked out by the sudden end to the silence. 

“Hey, Star?” Marco’s voice came from the other side of the door. “Is everything okay? You kind of went up to your room in kind of a hurry.” 

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just feeling a little tired, that’s all. You know, with all the freeze-day fun we had, and then school…But I’m okay. Just gonna lay down for a bit, and take a little nap, maybe” Star answered. 

It wasn’t a total lie – she was a little tired and did feel like laying down besides that – so she figured that she would have sounded convincing enough to him. 

“Well…okay. Hope you feel better soon” Marco said. There was a brief pause before he added, “Tell me if you need anything, okay?” 

Star couldn’t help but smile; it was just like Marco to be concerned like that, and she appreciated that he cared so much. 

But…him knocking on the door made her realize something: this was his baby, too. 

Star didn’t even have to think about it – there was literally no other option; Marco was the only one who she’d ever done, well, _that_ with. And while she knew she couldn’t tell her parents about the baby…he deserved to know. 

She knew that he’d keep her secret, if she explained why it was so important that her parents not find out about it. 

Literally every part of her mind was telling her that she should go to his room and tell him about her new discovery…every part, that is, except one. 

That part, a small voice in the back of her mind, reminded her of the events of earlier that day. 

More specifically, it reminded her of what she had seen on the screens of the Hall of Time when the eye had shown them his life. Those scenes had made it clear that Marco had liked Jackie since practically forever, and now he was finally feeling confident enough to at least try and make an effort to get closer to her, even if it was just by saying hello instead of just nodding. 

What was going to happen when she told him about this? Would he feel like he had to give up his dream of being with Jackie, and decide he had to be with her, all because of the mistake she had made? 

Knowing Marco, she wouldn’t be at all surprised if that happened…and it was the last thing she wanted. 

He was her best friend, and she hoped that they would always be together, but not if he felt like he was obligated to stay with her, and give up what he really wanted to do so. 

Not to mention that it felt like things were finally back to normal after what had happened between them. 

Despite their agreement to pretend like nothing had ever happened, Star had noticed that Marco had seemed…upset for a little while after that day, and there was often this slight bit of tension in the air between them in the weeks to follow. 

But, now it felt more like how it was before, and Star couldn’t be more relieved. 

Telling him the secret would just undo all that, forcing their relationship to change, even though she was sure that neither of them wanted that. 

However, before she could think any more about that, the nagging little voice piped up again, this time bringing up another point: who says that Marco would even believe her? 

After all, she didn’t really have any way to prove that she was pregnant – that was the main reason she knew that she could keep it a secret in the first place! And if he didn’t believe her, what then? 

It would completely ruin their friendship; that was something she had absolutely no doubts about. He would think that she was lying to him, and would get really angry at her for it, and probably wouldn’t ever really forgive her. 

Worse, what if he decided that he didn’t want to be friends anymore, and told her to leave?

She had thought things would be horrible if he did believe her, but now she knew it could be much, much worse…

Star blinked, and the tears that had been filling her eyes up to that point were released, streaming down her cheeks. She quickly wiped them away and came to a decision. 

There was a part of her that knew that she should tell Marco the truth – that he deserved to know about it – but she just couldn’t. She couldn’t risk ruining their friendship over this, not after it finally felt like it was back to normal. 

Maybe she could tell him later, but for now…

”I guess this is going to be our little secret, huh?” she said, glancing down briefly at her belly as she spoke. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few days had passed since Star had made her discovery, and for the most part, things were pretty much the same as always.

She was still dealing with occasional bouts of nausea, but was able to explain that away by telling the Diazes that she just had a bit of a bug. 

As for the magic part of her pregnancy…well, she didn’t even really need to explain that. 

While Marco would sometimes voice concerns about what her spells did, nobody ever really seemed to think too much about when she cast the spells. Fortunately, the random spells her wand fired out were always pretty harmless; at worst they were just kind of annoying. 

Like this morning, when the “spell-bursts” resulted in several of her non-combat spells being summoned, which made her bedroom crazier than usual with all the action going on between the different spells. 

But, the spells seemed to be having fun, and she didn’t have the heart to make them go back into the wand just yet. In fact, seeing the spells having fun gave her an excellent idea of how to have some fun of her own – and give the Diazes an exciting surprise to boot! 

So she snuck downstairs while Marco and his parents were either sleeping or busy, and made her idea a reality. 

As soon as she was in the living room, she whispered a spell (normally she would have shouted, but she figured that would kind of ruin the whole surprise), and within seconds the entire living room was transformed into something from a water park, with a pool and waterslides and everything! Star had even transformed the stairs into a waterslide, so there would be a fun way to get downstairs and into the new indoor water park she’d just created. 

Wanting to enjoy the results of her spell for herself, Star turned the wand on herself, transforming her dress into a bathing suit.

It didn’t take long at all for Mr. and Mrs. Diaz to discover what she had done, and while Mrs. Diaz had politely declined swimming for the time being, Mr. Diaz was quite excited to do so. 

But both of them were happy and grateful for the surprise, which made Star happy in return. 

She swam around in the pool for a while, playing with the laser puppies after they jumped in, until she looked up and saw that Marco was up. 

“Morning, Marco!” she called up to him, waving happily as she climbed out of the pool. 

He returned her greeting, but before he could say anything else, he slipped on a puddle and fell into the entrance of the slide that had replaced the stairs. 

At first, Star was worried when he started screaming, but the concern quickly melted away as the fearful screams turned into cries of delight. 

He was still laughing as he came out of the slide and splashed into the pool. 

“That was awesome!” he exclaimed, the delight from the ride still clear in his voice.

Star ran over and nodded in agreement. 

“I know, right. Stairs are _so boring_ ” she said. So far, things were going great – all of the Diazes loved her little pool-party surprise; just as she had expected they would. Surprises were always fun. Well, she thought as the slight nagging feeling came into the back of her mind, almost always…Marco chuckled a little, pulling Star out of her thoughts.

“I hope my parents don’t flip when they see this” he said, waving his arms a little.

As though on cue, at that moment, Mr. Diaz announced “I’m flipping!” before doing just that, landing in the pool with a splash. 

The sudden disturbance in the water made the laser puppies start yipping, while Marco cried out in surprise. However, Mr. Diaz just laughed and told him to relax, happily comparing the current situation to a get-away, minus the actual “getting away” part. 

After he finished talking, a dolphin suddenly came up from underneath him and carried him away. Star had to keep herself from reacting to that – she hadn’t remembered including dolphins in the spell; it must have been another magical burst. 

Thankfully, that was something she would normally add, so she knew nobody would question the addition. So, it was easy enough for her to just laugh the whole thing off. 

“I love living here!” she told Marco as he got out of the pool to stand next to her. “If my parents found out I’ve been using magic for stuff like this…” She trailed off, knowing that she probably didn’t have to describe what her parents would do if they found out. Plus, considering she knew the most likely result, she didn’t really want to think about it, either. 

“About that…” Marco began, catching Star’s attention. “This was cool, but next time maybe a little heads-up? Okay?” 

His attitude quickly changed from amusement to slight annoyance as he raised his leg to show his now-soaked sock and added, “Wet socks are a form of torture in some countries.” 

Star wasn’t sure how to respond to that; but, thankfully, before she actually had to come up with a response, the doorbell rang.

She was quick to volunteer to answer, partly to avoid trying to figure out what to say in response to Marco’s comment about her surprise, and partly because an unexpected guest was yet another example of a fun surprise. How could she resist that?

So, she cheerfully skipped over to the door and opened it…revealing her father sitting on the shoulders of Bernard, one of the Butterfly family servant who looked like he was close to passing out from the strain of his current job. 

“Oh, hey, Dad” Star said calmly, before the situation finally hit her, at which point she panicked. “Dad?!” 

Bernard began to step forward to enter the house with her father on his shoulders, King River himself beginning to return the greeting his daughter had given him seconds before. However, before they could actually get inside, Star slammed the door shut, leaning against it as she looked at the results of her latest spell. 

“I need to hide everything” she declared, before doing just that – to the clear disappointment of everyone who had been playing in the pool at the time. 

She made sure to transform her bathing suit into one of her regular dresses, before going back to the door and answering it again. 

“What a pleasant surprise” she said, laughing a little nervously. “What brings you here, unexpectedly?” 

King River turned to face his daughter and began to explain his sudden appearance. At first he tried to act nonchalant, claiming he had just happened to be in the neighborhood, before dropping the pretense and revealing the real reason for his surprise visit: his wife had banished him for the castle. 

Knowing this wasn’t the first time this had happened, Star’s only response was to ask, in a fairly uninterested tone, “What did you do?” 

The king seemed to take offense to this question. “Nothing!” he exclaimed. “I just left a garment or two lying around, that’s all.” 

He stepped inside, followed by Bernard who was dragging his luggage into the house as well. “I thought perhaps I could stay here for a day while this blows over.” 

Before Star could say anything, Mr. Diaz popped up from behind her father and picked him up with a hug. 

“Of course you can stay here – you are familia” Mr. Diaz told the king. “You can watch the kids while me and the wifey actually get away.”

He suddenly dropped River on the ground, running off (presumably to get changed and then leave with his wife) with an exclamation of farewell to the king and the two teenagers who were still in the room. 

Star did her best to try and at least appear somewhat happy about her father coming to visit, but in reality she was anything but. Normally she would be at least a little excited, but considering the circumstances, she was just worried. 

Besides the fear of being sent away, there was also the issue of keeping her secret. 

The Diazes had no idea how pregnancy worked for Mewnian princesses, so it was easy enough for her to explain away all of her symptoms. But, her father obviously had experience with this sort of thing (Star herself was literally living proof of that), and that meant she wouldn’t be able to lie her way out of it if he noticed anything strange. 

If it was just him, then maybe it wouldn’t be so bad…but even if they were apparently having a bit of an argument right now, Star knew that soon enough her parents would make up; and anything her father found out, her mother would know soon enough. This definitely wasn’t something that could even possibly fit into the category of “our little secret”, after all. 

Still, she knew that if she didn’t at least pretend like she was happy about it, that was just going to make him wonder why, so pretend she did. 

However, at the moment King River didn’t seem to be paying too much attention to his daughter, instead simply showing delight at his request being granted. Which was quickly followed by surprise as one of the laser puppies suddenly popped its head out from his heard. 

He happily greeted the puppy, only to be cut off as the lasers from the animal’s eyes shot into his own, causing him to give a yelp of pain. 

A second later, the king’s beard and eyebrows burst into flames, which quickly extinguished themselves, but left the hair noticeably singed. 

Star winced at the scene, mentally admonishing herself for not remembering to get the puppies out of the room when trying to hide the evidence of her spells. Her feelings instantly turned to fear as her father grabbed the puppy with one hand and held it out towards her, like he’d used to do with his finger when he’d scold her as a child. 

“Star,” he began, in his most stern voice, “if your mother knew you were using your wand inappropriately, she’d send you _straight_ to St. Olga’s!” 

Star just stood there, too anxious to say anything in response. However, before she had to say anything, her father’s attitude seemed to change completely as he announced, “But I’m not your mother! I rather enjoy destructive magical puppies.” 

Upon seeing her father’s expression change, Star instantly felt herself relax. 

“This visit is actually going to be fun, then!” she exclaimed happily. 

She wasn’t lying, not really; sure, she had to keep her secret from her dad, but there was no reason they couldn’t still have fun together besides that. 

She embraced her father, who dropped the puppy he had been holding, before excitedly dragging him away for a tour of the house. She briefly pointed out the living room and kitchen, before leading him upstairs and towards her bedroom. 

“Check out my room” she said, opening the door to reveal what was inside: various spells just hanging out, with some apparently taking part in pillow-fight betting. 

Her father seemed delighted at the sight, which helped Star’s mood immensely. 

“If you like this, let me show you the most magical room in the whole house” she told him, grabbing him by the beard and once again dragging him away to a different room, which she announced when they reached it: “The bathroom!” 

Upon entering, her father gasped and immediately began to walk towards the toilet. 

“What a glorious throne!” he said in wonder as he climbed onto the seat. “Why does it have a hole?”

Star was about to answer, when she was suddenly hit with a wave of nausea; maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to include the bathroom as part of the tour…

She did her best to ignore the churning feeling in her stomach as she, somewhat awkwardly, tried to explain exactly what the toilet was for. “Humans…put things in there, and…flush them down.” 

Her father seemed confused at the concept of flushing, but then he noticed the little trigger on the side of the toilet and pulled it down, making the water in the bowl drain away. 

Star watched with delight as her father watched the water spiral down the hole before filling back up again. Within seconds, the two of them had started a sort of game, where King River would ask if an item could go into the toilet, and when Star would agree to the idea, he’d drop the object in and push down the trigger.

It started out small, with him first putting in things like toilet paper and a toothbrush, but as they both got more and more excited, the objects he dropped in got bigger and bigger, until at one point he grabbed Flying Pig and put him into the already full toilet – much to the spell’s clear annoyance. 

After dropping in a bowling ball, they decided they were done with the current game and went to do something else. 

“Hi, Marco!” Star said as they passed by the boy on their way out.

She heard him say something, but was too far away to really make it out, though his cry of disgust was definitely something she noticed. She’d talk to him about it later – for now she wanted to focus on having fun with her dad; after all, he was only going to be there for one day, so why not make the most of it? 

So, she led him out of the house and through the town, pointing out various places before they finally reached their destination: the miniature golf place. 

Star used her wand to magic up some money to pay the employee at the desk, who handed the royals their clubs and allowed them onto the course to play. 

Once they were all set, she led him over to the first hole so they could actually play. 

“Marco taught me how to play this game – you are absolutely gonna love it” she told her father, who seemed to agree with the sentiment if his expression and the noise he was making were any indication of how he was feeling. 

Star explained the point of the game, and dropped the ball onto the ground in a silent suggestion to start playing. 

King River let out a laugh of delight and went to hit the ball…but he was holding his club upside down, which Star was quick to point out. He seemed confused by the terminology she used, and threw away the club that had been provided to him, before producing a battle club from basically nowhere, and whacking the ball with that. 

Star could only watch with a slightly dumbfounded expression as the ball hit a stone frog statue, causing it to fall over. 

Figuring it would be a quick fix, she began to reach for her wand, but before she even got a proper grip on the thing, she could feel the signs that it was about to fire off a spell…and since she hadn’t been properly thinking of a spell herself, she knew this would be another random burst. 

Not wanting to take the risk, she took her hand away from the wand – the damage wasn’t that bad, anyway, she reasoned to herself. 

“What is that?” her father’s almost angry tone caught Star’s attention, and she looked over to where he was pointing. 

Seeing the Candy Castle that was the main decoration of the next hole, she smiled and told her father what it was. 

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like he was really paying any attention to what she was saying, as he began ranting about someone called Lord Salivary of the Weebler Elf clan. 

Before Star could even begin to ask who that was, he ran over to the castle and began destroying it, leaving a stunned Star to watch in horror as he continued to rant “to” this Salivary guy, saying things that made absolutely no sense to Star. 

It wasn’t until he had moved over to another hole and had started to rip out a tiki torch that she was finally able to react. 

“Dad!” she yelled, running over to him just as he threw the torch like a spear. “Stop it!” 

She began to drag him away, realizing that the game was obviously over…and now knowing she was going to have to fix things once her father went home in the morning. Hopefully the people who ran the golf course wouldn’t be too angry at having to wait until morning. 

Suddenly the ruins of the Candy Castle burst into flames, followed quickly by a good chunk of the surrounding area. Yeah, most likely the people who owned the place were going to be really angry at having to wait for their golf course to be back to normal after all this. 

However, there wasn’t really time to think of that, as everyone was quickly evacuated from the burning premises – most of them appropriately frightened of the blaze, while King River only seemed to care about how he’d bested Lord Salivary. 

Once they were far enough away, Star couldn’t keep herself from giving her father an annoyed glare while he wasn’t paying attention. She had just wanted to show him some of the fun stuff she’d learned about on Earth, and he had to go and completely destroy the golf course? 

But, when he looked at her and eagerly asked what they were going to do next, she found she couldn’t stay too mad at him; he was just excited about how much fun Earth could be, that’s all. 

Star tried to think of some other things they could do, but after what had just happened, she was a little hesitant to bring her father to certain places.

So, rather than take him anywhere specific, she decided to just keep giving him a tour of Echo Creek, leading him all around the town and pointing places that she thought were significant, until deciding it was late enough for them to go back to the Diaz house. They stopped by somewhere so Star could grab some take-out for everyone to eat and then made their way back. 

“So, what did you guys do all day?” Marco asked as they all sat down to eat. 

Thinking back on what had happened at the golf course, Star nearly choked on her food. 

“I’ll...tell you later” she said, her tone making it fairly clear that the events of the day were not something she was eager to discuss. 

Marco seemed to understand this, as he simply nodded in response. 

However, obviously King River didn’t quite get the message, as he almost immediately began talking about what had happened, though the way he was acting, one would think he’d done something heroic, rather than completely destroying a place of entertainment. 

Star could barely suppress a groan of irritation at his behavior; and as soon as she was done eating, she informed her father and Marco that she was going to bed. 

She wasn’t really that tired, but after what had happened that day, she needed a little break from her father. 

Still deciding to let the spells stay out of the wand for a little longer, Star just flopped onto her bed, not even bothering to change clothes or get underneath the blankets.

It wasn’t until sometime later, when she realized she was actually about to fall asleep that she took the time to change into her pajamas and make herself comfortable. Despite how crazy things had been earlier that day, they were now surprisingly calm, and Star soon found herself drifting off to sleep. 

Sometime later, she started feeling a little sick – nothing too severe, but enough that she could feel herself being forced into wakefulness from the sensation. 

She was still mostly asleep when she took in a whiff of something unfamiliar, which added to the nauseous feeling she was experiencing and helped her wake up completely; upon which she discovered she was holding onto a pair of her father’s underpants. 

This discovery made her scream in horror as she literally jumped out of bed. 

“Gross, gross, gross, gross!” she cried, shaking her hands in an attempt to rid them of any underwear smell. As if she wasn’t having a hard enough time dealing with nausea lately…

Speaking of which, within about a second of her getting out of bed, she could feel her stomach churning, and had to quickly cover her mouth to keep herself from actually getting sick right then and there. 

She was about to rush to the bathroom to help relieve the feeling, figuring that her father was fast asleep and wouldn’t know about it, anyway – when a noise from inside the room caught her attention. 

Reluctantly swallowing the bile that had risen into her throat, she grabbed her wand and lit it up so she could examine the room. She watched as a couple of her spells ran away from a pile of dirty laundry…that was moving quite a bit. 

At first, Star wondered if maybe she’d had another magic burst while sleeping; but then she heard the sound of her father’s voice coming from inside. With quite a bit of reluctance, she went into the pile – which was bigger than it looked from the outside – to investigate what was going on. 

Inside she found something very strange indeed – her father wrestling with Kevin the Clown spell, while some of the other spells watched. 

“Dad? What are you doing?” she asked as she watched the scene with a baffled expression. 

“Oh, hello, darling” her father said, waving at her with a smile before continuing with the fight. 

“It’s the middle of the night” Star pointed out, unable to keep the annoyance from showing in her tone.

It didn’t seem like her father noticed this, however, as he simply declared that it was “The perfect time for a tussle” before once again turning his attention to the clown he was wrestling. 

Star just watched with a dull expression as her father announced that he could do this all night. 

Realizing that she wasn’t going to be able to convince him to go to bed, she simply left the pile of clothes and climbed back into bed, turning onto her side and putting her pillow over her head in an attempt to block out the noise surrounding her. 

It didn’t work, and while she was eventually able to fall back asleep, she was still very tired (in more ways than one) when she got up the following morning. 

Still half-asleep, she went downstairs and made some microwave pancakes for breakfast. Part of her was arguing that maybe that wasn’t the best choice, given how her stomach had been the night before, but after that night, she needed something sweet.

She sat down and began pouring on the syrup when she heard someone say, “Good morning.” 

Too tired to properly respond, she simply let out a few little noises to show she had heard them. 

“It was ridiculously loud last night” the person said, sounding quite irritated as they spoke. 

By this point, Star was more awake and therefore, more aware…but she was still kind of out of it. 

“It wasn’t me, Oskar – it was my dad!” she said. Suddenly, it was as if a switch had been flipped inside of her, and she was instantly wide awake. 

“He’s insane!” she screamed as she leapt out of her chair, throwing away the now empty bottle of maple syrup. Now that she was fully awake, she began to let loose about how she really felt about her father at the moment. She ranted for a few seconds about his behavior, before making a statement about how inconsiderate he was. 

“Huh, I can weird relate” Marco said in a dry tone through a mouthful of cereal.

“What do you mean?” Star asked, turning to him with a look of confusion. She had no idea how he could have any idea of what she was currently dealing with, so his statement came as quite a shock to her. 

“Doesn’t that sound a little familiar?” he asked her, causing her to consider what he had just said.

After a few seconds of consideration, Star finally realized what he was talking about. 

“Yeah…he does this to my mom!” 

“Never mind…” Marco said with a slightly tired look on his face as he returned to munching on his cereal. 

She didn’t get why he seemed so bothered by her answer – it made perfect sense to her – but she wasn’t going to dwell on it.

Instead, she decided to focus on something much more positive: the fact that her father would be going back to Mewni that day.

“I don’t know how much more of this I can take” she said to Marco, before something slammed into the window next to her, causing her to jump and yelp in surprise at the noise. She looked to see her father now pressed up against the glass, not seeming to notice how freaked out she was as he just said hello and opened the window so he could climb inside. 

“Dad, what are you doing?” Star asked. There were several layers to that question, as not only was she wondering why he was swinging around with lights wrapped around him, but she was wondering why he was still there in the first place. Wasn’t he supposed to have gone back to Mewni by now? 

“I’m hanging lights for the party” he responded by means of explanation. 

Well, this was certainly news to her. “What party?” 

“Oh, geez, I forgot to tell you” King River said, slapping himself on the forehead; at least he had the decency to look embarrassed about the situation. He then went on to tell Star that, because he was having such a great time, he had made the decision to stay on Earth – news that caused Star’s brain to completely shut down for a few moments.

She had barely made it through one day living like this – both just dealing with his annoying habits and behavior, and trying to keep him from finding out her secret; how in the world was she going to manage it for even longer? She was already pretty sure that she was going to end up spending quite a bit of time stuck in the bathroom as some sort of karmic punishment for how many times she’d forced herself to avoid getting sick in order to keep her father from getting suspicious. She didn’t even want to think about what the consequences would end up being if she was forced to keep it up. 

“Great…” she said in a trance-like voice, still trying to process what she’d just learned. 

Her father didn’t seem to notice that Star didn’t exactly share his enthusiasm and simply continued his explanation by saying he’d decided to throw a party to celebrate his decision. He had even invited some of his friends over to check the place out. 

Before Star could say anything more, the doorbell rang and her father went to answer it, expecting that it was some of said friends. 

Soon enough, the living room was completely full of people from all sorts of different dimensions; some Star was familiar with (like King Pony Head), and others she had never seen in her entire life; honestly, she wasn’t even sure if her father knew exactly who some of the guests were, considering he never even spoke to a few of them. 

At first, Star tried to just relax as best as she could, but it didn’t take long for her to realize that plan wasn’t going to work – and more importantly, that if she didn’t say something soon, there was no way she was going to be able to convince her father to change his mind about staying on Earth. 

Finally, she decided that she had to confront him about the whole thing.

“Dad,” she began, walking over to where her dad was talking with King Pony Head, “I really need to talk to you – right now.” 

However, before she could say anything else, another voice chimed in from the direction of the front door (which had been left open for some reason…) – a rather obnoxious-sounding voice.

“Hey guys! Well, here I am! Now the party can start! Ooh, tight squeeze.” 

Star watched as what looked like an actual sun with a face came into the house, not only ripping out the doorway, but leaving it burning in the process. 

Not even thinking about the chances of her having another surge, she quickly grabbed her wand and extinguished the flames before they could spread to anywhere else; the golf course yesterday was bad enough – she didn’t need to get the Diazes’ house burned down, too. 

Star was about to ask her father why she had to invite that guy of all people – the rest of his friends were kind of annoying, but harmless enough – but then she saw the disgusted expression on his face. 

“Who invited Helios?” King River asked no one in particular, grabbing his face briefly in anger. “That guy is the worst! He ruins every party and is completely oblivious about it!” 

Considering she was already out of patience with her father, Star was in no mood to sympathize with him. Instead, she sarcastically commented, “Funny – I can weirdly relate.”

It was obviously that he didn’t pick up on her tone, or at the very least, he was more concerned with his own annoyance, as he just griped about what Helios was doing. 

“So, why don’t you just kick him out? Along with everyone else?” Star asked, getting increasingly fed up with the situation with each passing moment.

Instead of doing what she suggested, King River simply refused to talk to Helios at all, walking away with King Pony Head and leaving Star to put her head into her hands in a display of barely contained anger. 

Well, if her father wasn’t going to put an end to the party, than she would have to do it instead. She walked over to where this Helios guy was literally sucking up some desserts from the table.

“Excuse me – I think you’ve overstayed your welcome, and you gotta go” she informed him, speaking in a tone that was so unlike herself that normally even she would have been surprised at how she sounded. 

Instead of doing as she said, Helios simply began to make a comment/joke about how annoying Star was being…all while starting to pull her towards him with his gravitational pull.

Star desperately tried to drag herself away, but to no avail. Fortunately, once he was done making his joke, Helios left, and Star was no longer being pulled towards him. Her heart still pounding from the experience, she scrambled to her feet and glared in his direction. 

She was pulled out of her thoughts of frustration and annoyance when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Marco pacing in a puddle with an angry expression on his face, ranting aloud to himself about his wet socks. 

Almost immediately, she felt her anger vanish, replaced with sympathy for her friend. She wasn’t the only one who was being affected by this whole thing, and she should have recognized that way before this point. 

She walked over to him, saying his name and touching his shoulder in order to get his attention and make him stop pacing so they could talk. 

“I am so sorry that every time I try to have some fun, I end up soaking your socks” she told him. She hoped that the apology was enough to make up for all the times she’d accidentally put him through this ordeal in the past twenty-four hours. 

“Look, I love all the fun things you wanna do” Marco told her, giving her a reassuring smile. “Just…a little heads-up would be nice.” 

He gave a little chuckle as he added, “There’s really nothing worse than wet socks.” 

“Oh…yeah…” Star said, before realization suddenly hit her and she got an idea that filled her with excitement. “Oh, yeah! Nothing worse than wet socks!” 

She quickly whispered her plan to Marco, before sneaking upstairs and into her room. 

While a few of her spells had joined the party upstairs, others were still just hanging out in the bedroom; and one of these spells was exactly who she was looking for. 

“Cloudy,” she called, waving the cloud spell over to her. “I need your help with something.” 

Being ever-loyal Cloudy didn’t even ask to know what Star needed help with, simply agreeing to do whatever she needed him to do. With that out of the way, Star climbed onto Cloudy and told him to fly her back to the living room. 

Once she was back, she announced, “It’s time to purge this party!” 

With that, she cast a variation of the spell that she had used to turn the living room into a water park the day before – which instantly filled the room with water deep enough to cover everyone’s socks, soaking them in the process. 

And, just as predicted, everyone was incredibly annoyed at this development; within seconds, not only was everyone complaining about their wet socks, but they were pulling out their dimensional scissors and cutting portals so they could leave. 

King River started to protest to all his friends leaving, but then went silent as he looked at the aftermath of his party. After picking up something from the water, he walked over to the couch, where Star and Marco were currently avoiding the water – with the boy squeezing the water from his own socks. 

“Sweetheart?” he began, getting the attention of Star. “I perhaps got a little carried away, and I may have been a little inconsiderate. I guess that’s why your mother kicked me out in the first place. I’m sorry, you guys.” 

“And you’ll patch things up with Mom?” Star asked, unable to keep herself from sounding hopeful. She may have been willing to forgive him after that apology, but she still did not want to have to deal with him living here permanently. 

To her immense relief, he confirmed that he would be fixing things with his wife, and the two happily embraced.

They broke apart as Marco asked River what he was going to do with Helios, who was now nothing more than a golf ball-sized stone in the King’s hand. 

The former sun excitedly asked where they were going to go, and River simply replied that he didn’t know, but he would be happy to give Helios a ride there. He then pulled out his club and, just like he’d done with at the golf course, gave the living stone a whack, sending him flying into a portal. 

King River laughed with delight, before jumping back down onto the couch, making it rock slightly. 

“I’ll send my best serfs here to make everything better than new” he promised his daughter and Marco, before cutting his own portal to Mewni and going through it. 

The two teens each called out a farewell to the retreating king. Once her father was gone, Star couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief. 

She then turned to Marco and said, “I promise, from now on, I’ll always give you a heads-up”. 

“Thanks” Marco said with a smile. “But, a surprise is nice every once in a while. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Before she could give an answer, he pushed her into the water, quickly jumping in after. 

The two friends laughed as they resurfaced on the backs of dolphins and began to play a game with the only guest who had stayed after Star had flooded the living room – a creature that looked like a combination of a ball of water, a seal, and a party horn. 

The three of them played around in the water for a while, when all of a sudden, several portals opened up and, just as King River had promised, servants came out and began cleaning up the room. 

Star decided to give them a hand, and used her magic to get rid of the water and everything that had come with it. Unfortunately, as soon as she was done casting that spell, she had yet another magical burst, and suddenly there were several bubbles floating near the servants, occasionally squirting them with water. 

“I am so sorry – I swear I didn’t mean for that to happen” she told them as she undid the unplanned spell. 

“No need to worry, your highness. It’s just water, after all. No harm done” assured one of the servants before he and his companions went back to worth. 

Soon enough, the room was back to normal, just as King River had promised; there was absolutely no sign whatsoever that anything unusual had happened there. They had even replaced the doorway that Helios had destroyed! 

Star thanked the servants for their help, and told them to offer the same expression of gratitude to her father when they saw him again. The head servant of the group agreed to the terms, and they cut their portals back to Mewni, once again leaving Star and Marco alone in the house. 

They spent the rest of the day as they normally would – just having fun hanging out, doing things like watching TV and playing with the laser puppies. And when Marco’s parents got home, they told them all about what had happened while King River visited; the whole thing was a lot more fun in hindsight, Star had to admit – though she still wouldn’t want a repeat of the scenario if she could help it. 

The rest of the day went by pretty smoothly – though Star was correct in her earlier assumption that forcing herself to “hold it in” when she felt sick was eventually going to come back to bite her (at least now she could just go to the bathroom and take care of things when needed) – and before too long, Star was climbing into bed, reflecting on the events of the past couple days as she started to fall asleep. 

Overall, while she definitely wouldn’t want to repeat the scenario, she had to admit that things worked out alright, and even if she did get annoyed by the end, and was worried about him finding out her secret, it was fun to spend some quality time with her dad. 

Still, she had to admit that now she was looking forward to having just a few days where things were back to normal: going to school, hanging out, occasionally visiting other dimensions for fun. Just the usual stuff, without any major surprises; that was all she asked for, after the days she’d had. 

Well, a few normal days, and that her symptoms would fade away soon. 

Even if she was pretty sure all this was normal, right now the thing Star was probably looking more forward to was when she’d once again be able to get through a day without feeling like she was going to be sick at least once; or having to worry about her wand casting spells without her input. 

Sure, usually the spells were harmless enough, and sometimes they could even be fun; but she was worried that, soon enough, they were going to end up getting her into trouble. So, in her eyes, the sooner she had control over her magic again, the better. 

With those thoughts settling in her head, Star made herself comfortable in her bed, snuggled up in her blanket, and soon drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I'm sure most of you probably guessed the main twist in this chapter, considering not only the events of the last chapter, but also the fact that I kind of gave the surprise away in the tags for the story. And now you all know what the secret in the title is referring to. 
> 
> Yes, Star's logic in regards to how Marco might react if she told him the news is flawed, but she's not thinking clearly at all - for what I think are pretty understandable reasons. And as for her thoughts about how her parents would respond if they found out...well, let's just say that will be addressed later on.
> 
> This is basically going to be the format of the story for a while - it's more or less a retelling of the events of the series told from Star's more direct perspective, but with the added detail of Star's pregnancy and the related secret, as well as some extra scenes that I came up with, sometimes to add detail/context to events from the episodes, sometimes just because I thought it'd be good to have another scene in the story.


	3. Chapter 3

In the days following her father’s visit, things had calmed down exponentially for Star and Marco. They had fallen into their usual routine of going to school, coming home, and just hanging out when they had finished whatever assignments they’d been giving for homework that day. 

Of course, they also had their occasional adventures to other dimensions, but after the excitement of both their recent “freeze day” and dealing with King River, neither was exactly in the mood for anything overly intense, so when they did use the scissors, their destinations were usually fairly calm – not really ideal locations for adventures.

Not to mention, Star wasn’t really in the mood for really fun adventures lately. 

She still liked going to the other dimensions with Marco, of course, and she enjoyed herself when they were visiting and exploring these new places. But, at the same time, she had to admit that her heart wasn’t really into it. 

This was because her mind was on something else: her best friend, Flying Princess Pony Head; or, more specifically, on said best friend’s birthday. Her birthday was less than a week away, and normally that would get Star really excited. 

However, things were different this year, since now Pony Head was stuck at St. Olga’s Reform School for Wayward Princesses – which was probably the worst place to be on a day like your birthday, especially for someone like Pony Head who loved to party even when it wasn’t her birthday. 

Star couldn’t even send her besty a present to try and make her birthday more fun, or even just do something as simple as give her a call to wish her a happy birthday on the actual day – the reform school was just that strict. 

So now here Star was: just laying on her bed, halfheartedly skimming through her history book in an attempt to study for an upcoming test she and Marco had that week, occasionally taking a sip of ginger ale from the glass that was standing on a small stand that she’d conjured up. The soda had been a suggestion from Marco’s parents; when Star had refused to see a doctor – despite her nausea not seeming to fade – they had recommended using ginger as a way to help settle her stomach. 

So far, it seemed to be working well enough. She was still definitely aware of the feeling when it crept up, but it wasn’t quite as bad as it used to be, and she could at least manage it somewhat. 

Still, while she was feeling physically better than she had been before, it didn’t change how she was feeling emotionally. There was a part of her mind that kept trying to tell her that she should stop worrying about it – there wasn’t anything she could do to change the situation, so why bother getting worked up about it and making herself so upset? But she just couldn’t stop thinking about Pony Head being all alone at St. Olga’s on her birthday of all days, not allowed to get any presents or treats or even just a talk with her best besty. 

“Call from Mom” the voice of her mirror announced, distracting Star from both her book – which she was barely paying any attention to in the first place – and her thoughts regarding Pony Head.

While the mirror continued to chime, Star got up from the bed, leaving both her history book and her wand behind.

In the past, she would have taken her wand with her when her mother would give her a call, if only to have something to fiddle around with so she wouldn’t get too bored from the lectures that always came out of the calls. After a couple of close calls with her magic bursts, however, Star ultimately decided that it’d be better to leave the wand behind during the call. Having to be bored for a few minutes was nothing compared to what she knew would happen if her mother became suspicious of her, after all. 

Taking a deep breath to help brace herself for the boredom that she knew was coming, Star pressed the button on the side of the mirror to answer the incoming call. 

The mirror’s screen briefly changed from the call-announcement message to static before it established the connection between Star’s mirror and the one back at Butterfly Castle. 

To Star’s slight surprise, not only was her mother standing in front of the mirror, but her father was there as well. 

“Uh, what’s going on?” she asked, unable to keep the confusion out of her voice, and knowing it most likely showed on her face as well. “Is this another princess lesson, or what?” 

“It’s very nice to see you, too, dear” her mother replied dryly. 

Star felt herself start to blush a little at this implied scolding. Okay, maybe she was being kind of rude right then, but she couldn’t really help it – this whole thing was so confusing! 

By now she was used to her mother calling her basically every day to give her lessons and reminders about how to be a good princess and future queen and all that. But, usually it was just her mother talking. 

Star never bothered to question where her father was during the calls, figuring that he was just off doing something fun, or maybe taking care of some kind of royal duties. It didn’t really matter – it just meant that he normally wasn’t present when his wife called up their daughter. 

So, of course Star was going to wonder what was going on when he showed up by his wife’s side in this particular call.

“Oh, right – Hi Mom and Dad. Sorry about all that before…” she said, cheeks still slightly pink as she gave a slightly sheepish wave and smile. “It’s just…usually it’s just you calling when you want to give me some princess advice. Just kind of wondering why Dad’s here for this one.” 

“Well, yes, normally your father wouldn’t be present for one of those talks” Queen Moon agreed. “However, this call isn’t about that – it’s about your friend, Flying Princess Pony Head.” 

In an instant, any concerns about boredom vanished from Star’s mind, replaced with worried thoughts about her friend. 

“What do you need to talk to me about Pony Head for? Did something happen to her? Oh, that’s why you’re calling isn’t it?” Star began to ramble to herself, pulling on her own hair as she paced in front of the mirror. “I knew St. Olga’s was a horrible place, and now they’ve done something awful to my besty and I’m probably never going to see her again!” 

She was so focused on her worried ranting about what may have happened to her friend that everything else just seemed to fade into the background. That is, until she was snapped away from her thoughts by the sound of her father shouting her name – rather loudly. 

Covering her ears in response to the volume, Star turned to once again face the mirror. 

As she did, she noticed that her mother was also covering her ears and wincing in response to her husband’s shouting.

Once the king noticed that he’d got the attention of his worried daughter, he resumed his more regal posture, politely clearing his throat as he did so. Queen Moon shot her husband the briefest of annoyed looks, before sighing and turning her attention back to Star, who still looked worried, but was no longer absolutely panicked. 

“There’s no need to worry, Star. Nothing awful has happened to Princess Pony Head – she’s perfectly safe at St. Olga’s” Moon explained. 

Star was about to make a comment about how being at St. Olga’s was something awful in and of itself, but she bit her tongue to keep herself from saying anything. 

“In fact, we were actually calling to give you some good news regarding her”.

Now that definitely caught Star’s attention. Ever since Pony Head had been taking to St. Olga’s, Star had been sad and worried about her friend whenever she thought about her being stuck in that horrible place. Hearing her mother say that they had good news about her friend made Star hopeful – maybe King Pony Head had changed his mind and decided to take Princess Pony Head out of St. Olga’s early? 

Star had never heard of anything like that happening before, but there had to be a first time for everything…right? Not wanting to take the risk of being wrong, Star – with some effort – kept herself from directly asking about her theory regarding Pony Head’s freedom. 

Instead, she decided to ask a much safer question: “Yeah? What kind of good news?” 

The queen smiled, ever so slightly, as she went on to deliver the news she had been referring to. 

“King Pony Head recently contacted us to inform us that he has talked to the staff at St. Olga’s and they have agreed to make a small adjustment to one of their rules” she said, taking a moment to gauge Star’s reaction before continuing. “For her birthday, Princess Pony Head will be allowed to contact you for a short conversation. It will have to be at a certain time, of course, but we all assume that won’t be an issue for either you or Princess Pony Head.” 

Star couldn’t help but start bouncing with joy at this news. Yes, it wasn’t anywhere near as great of news as she had been hoping for, but it was still great to hear. Now she could make sure that her besty wouldn’t have a bad birthday after all! 

She was so overjoyed by this news that she briefly forgot that this was just a call, and actually slammed into the mirror when she tried to give her parents a hug in order to thank them for giving her such great news. 

Once she had picked herself up off the floor, Star thanked her parents again – this time through words. She even requested that her father tell King Pony Head that she said “Thank you” as well, which the king was happy to agree to. 

Once the conversation was over, Star exchanged goodbyes with her parents and waited until they had ended the call from their end before once again starting to bounce around with excitement. 

She even picked up her wand and just fired off a couple of spells to help celebrate the news she had just received. Unfortunately, she was a little too focused on thinking about how she was going to be able to talk to Pony Head for the first time in months, and not really paying attention to what her wand was doing, or the noise that came as a result of the spells being cast. 

That is, until her door slammed open, and Marco came in, looking rather frantic and holding up his arms like he was ready for a fight. 

“What’s going on? Did Ludo’s monsters try breaking in again?” he questioned Star, still poised for combat as he looked around the room, searching for signs of their enemies. 

Seeing no signs of either Ludo or any of his monster lackeys, and instead seeing the room practically plastered in things like crepe paper, balloons, and other things that looked like they belonged at a party, Marco lowered his arms, his expression slowly going from worried to confused. 

“Uh, is someone having a party, or something?” he asked, looking over at Star, who was still bouncing from her barely-contained happiness and excitement.

However, she forced herself to calm down – just a little – so she could explain to Marco what was going on. 

“No, no, there’s no party going on…but I really wish there was” she told him as she magically removed everything that she’d created in her blind excitement. “But, it’s something almost as fun as that: Pony Head’s birthday is coming up in a few days, and my parents told me that her dad got the people at St. Olga’s to let us talk for a while. That never happens, so I’m just super excited.”

This explanation seemed to satisfy Marco, as he nodded and let out a little noise that seemed to indicate that he understood what she was talking about…or, at the very least, he was going to act like he understood all that. 

His expression changed once again – this time to a sort of sympathetic look – when Star added, in a somewhat guilty voice, “Sorry if I made you worry – I swear I didn’t mean to.” 

Marco placed his hand on Star’s shoulder and said, “Hey, it’s alright – you were just excited, and I get that. Pony Head’s your friend, and you haven’t been able to see her in months. That is something I can totally relate to – you remember how excited my parents and I were when Gustav came to visit?” 

Star couldn’t help but flinch slightly at the reminder of that experience (even if she and Charlie Booth had come to an agreement about the situation, the memory of feeling ignored was not a happy one), though she did her best to keep her attitude positive. 

After all, the main point of what Marco was saying was that he wasn’t upset by what she’d done, and that was really the important thing to focus on at the moment. 

“Besides, I should probably be apologizing, too.” 

This caught Star’s attention, as she genuinely didn’t understand why he felt like he should feel sorry about anything. 

Apparently her confusion was clear, as Marco immediately began to try and explain himself. “For just barging in like that, I mean. I really should have knocked, instead of…not doing that.” 

Seeing him suddenly become so uncomfortable just made Star wish that she hadn’t wanted to ask him what he had to be sorry about; or, at the very least, that she’d done a better job at hiding that desire.

She really should have realized that something like this was the issue, and known that even implying she wanted an explanation was just going to upset him.

Despite him having agreed that they’d both do their best to pretend things were the same as they had ever been between them, there were times when Star could tell he couldn’t help but think back to that day. They didn’t happen super often, and usually they passed quickly, but they still happened; and she always hated to see him that way. 

So, she did what she normally did when she saw that he was starting to feel awkward about the situation: she tried to distract him with something fun. 

“Hey, since you’re already here, maybe you can help me with something” she said, smiling as she wrapped her arm around his shoulders in a friendly manner.

Marco seemed to stiffen ever-so-slightly at the sudden contact, though he relaxed just as quickly. Still, it seemed like it had taken his mind off what he was thinking about before – which is exactly what Star had been hoping for. 

“Okay…what do you need help with?” he questioned as he carefully removed her arm from his shoulder, turning slightly so they were facing each other. 

“I wanted to send something to Pony Head for her birthday. It’s the first birthday we haven’t gotten to really spend together, so it’s gotta be something really great” Star explained, still with a smile upon her face. 

There was a part of her mind that kept trying to remind her that the princesses at St. Olga’s weren’t allowed to receive packages of any sort, but Star just ignored it. After all, if they were willing to make the exception about the call, why couldn’t they do the same for the gift? And besides, her besty definitely deserved to get something great for her birthday. 

Marco raised an eyebrow slightly at this request. “You want _me_ to help you think of a gift to send to _Pony Head_?” he asked, sounding as though he genuinely couldn’t believe what she was asking of him. 

“Well..yeah” Star replied. “I mean, you usually have really good ideas, so I figured you’d know the right gift to get her.” 

In her eyes, it just made perfect sense. Marco was, without a doubt, one of the smartest and most considerate people she had ever met. Who would know better what the best gift to get someone than a person like him? 

However, despite her own confidence in his abilities, it seemed like Marco didn’t quite feel the same way. 

“I guess…” he said, glancing away as he began to rub his neck. “But, I don’t really know Pony Head that well, so figuring out a gift to get for her is kind of hard for me…” 

Not willing to accept that answer, Star simply grabbed onto her friend’s arm and began to shake it slightly, all the while pleading for him to help her. 

After a few moments of this, Marco finally seemed to come up with an idea. 

“Why don’t you send her some kind of treat? Like a cake or something like that?” he suggested. “I don’t know much about this St. Olga’s place, but considering what you’ve told me about it, I’d be surprised if they really had decent snacks there.” 

Star gave an excited gasp at the suggestion and began to bounce slightly, still holding onto Marco’s arm, her grip on which had tightened slightly as the emotion began to flow through her. 

“How come I didn’t think of that? That is like the perfect present to send someone when they’re stuck there” she said, her tone excited until she noticed Marco wincing slightly, at which point she became apologetic.

She gave an apology as she released her hold on his arm. Marco rubbed his arm a little after she had let him go, to alleviate the slight amount of pain that had developed from his best friend squeezing his arm so hard. 

He was about to say something, when Star suddenly jumped on him, giving him a brief, but fairly strong, embrace. It only lasted for about a second before Star let go, saying, “Thanks for your help, Marco”, and running off, leaving Marco alone with a slightly uncomfortable expression on his face and his cheeks just slightly pink. 

“Yeah…don’t mention it” he called, somewhat awkwardly as Star continued to run down the hall and towards the stairs. Star heard him, but she was too focused on her new task to give any indication of that fact. 

She dashed downstairs, jumping over the last few steps in order to get to the first floor even quicker. 

Once she was there, she raced into the kitchen, sliding slightly before managing to regain her footing, though not before nearly smacking into a nearby counter. 

Not that it would have really bothered her all that much if she had hit the counter, since she had to go there anyway to get what she was looking for; or, more accurately, she had to go into the cabinet beneath the counter. 

Star began to rummage through the kitchen until she finally got everything she needed: a bowl, a spoon, a tin for making muffins and cupcakes, and most importantly, little wrappers to put in the tin for the cupcakes. 

Star took a moment to clean up the kitchen (she had ended up making a bit of a mess as she tore through the place, trying to find everything she needed) with a quick little spell, before going on to summon all the ingredients she needed. 

Of course, she could have just magically made the treats themselves, but this was supposed to be a special birthday treat for her best besty – it just wouldn’t feel right to just use a spell to make them all at once. Though, that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to use magic to make them all the more special…

Smiling to herself as she thought about her plan, Star began to toss the ingredients into the bowl, sometimes with her hands, and sometimes by use of magic. 

There were a handful of times when she felt her wand about to fire off a spell while she was still trying to remember what came next, but she was usually quick enough to place it on the counter before the bursts could actually occur…with one exception.

At one point, the wand fired off a spell which turned the chocolate chips and sugar-coated oats that she was going to toss into the cupcakes into odd-looking insects. 

Thankfully, Star was able to undo the spell before the little bugs could wander out off of the tabletop, and more importantly, before anyone else could see them. 

After examining the chips and oats to make sure they were all back to normal, she tossed several handfuls of each into the batter and gave it another quick stir to make sure everything was all mixed together. 

Star was all set to pour the batter into the tin for baking, but she couldn’t resist taking a moment to dip her finger into the bowl and take a taste of the stuff for herself. It wasn’t quite what she expected, but she figured that was because it was still raw – it’d taste better once it was actually baked, she was sure of that. 

She poured the batter into the wrappers that were placed into the tin, and then threw the entire thing into the oven for baking. 

While the cupcakes were baking, Star eagerly watched them through the little window on the front of the oven, beaming at the thought of Pony Head’s reaction when she’d open the package on her birthday and see her surprise. 

However, it wasn’t long before her impatience overrode her joy and excitement, and she got tired of waiting. So, rather than continue to wait for the cupcakes to finish baking on their own, Star pulled out her wand and aimed a spell at the front of the oven – a spell that helped make the cupcakes bake much faster. 

Within seconds, the batter in the cups had gone from slightly lumpy goo to actually being real cupcakes, and the kitchen was filled with the delicious smell of chocolate. Licking her lips slightly at the smell, Star opened the oven door – which only made the smell of the baked goods all the more intense – and pulled out the tin. 

There was a part of her that wanted to just magically cool the cupcakes so they could be decorated faster, but she managed to hold back that desire. She wanted to make these special…and now she just had to figure out exactly how to do that. 

Star sat in front of the cupcakes, staring at them in silence as she chewed on the bell of her wand and tried to think of the best way to make the cupcakes even more fun. As she was thinking, she noticed her wand beginning to glow – and instantly took it out of her mouth, just in time for a bit of magic to fire out of the crystal. 

The spell itself wasn’t anything particularly impressive – just something that looked like a very small firework going off – but seeing that image sparked Star’s imagination, and she gave an excited squeal as the idea came into her mind. 

“Fireworks…in the cupcakes!” she exclaimed, throwing her arms out as she did so. “That’s like two treats in one – it’s a snack and something fun to watch. This is gonna make Pony Head’s birthday extra special.” 

Still smiling, she thought about a spell that would give her the effect she wanted, and aimed it at the cupcakes. Once the magic hit them, the cupcakes began to shake and glow, occasionally letting out steam from cracks that opened up in their tops and making small popping noises.

“Come on…come on….” Star muttered to herself, crossing her fingers as she continued to watch the cupcakes glow and tremble in the tin. 

Yes, if something happened to the cupcakes, she could always use magic to fix them, but she was really hoping that this spell would work. Pony Head deserved to get a super-special birthday treat, especially this year, when she wouldn’t be able to actually go out and have fun.

After another moment or two, the glow faded from the cupcakes and they stopped shaking, though the steam continued to waft from the broken tops. Star waited for the steaming to stop, before cautiously giving one of the cupcakes a poke. When nothing happened, she cheered. 

“I hereby declare this super-special birthday treat an absolute success” she announced to no one in particular as she took the cupcakes out of the tin to finish cooling, and to be decorated. 

Still wanting to make them extra special, she decided to decorate them by hand, despite knowing that using magic would make things a lot easier. Well, okay, she did use magic to summon all the stuff she needed for the decorating, but what counted was that she’d be doing the actual decorating all by herself. 

The process of decorating the cupcakes took a few minutes – and by the time Star was done, both her hands and face and a decent amount of the kitchen were covered in different colors of frosting – but when Star was able to look at her work, she was more than satisfied. She had made sure to make them all different and all special, covering some with star or heart-shaped sprinkles, one with a little mini-horn made out of sugar, and even making two of the cakes into little unicorns, with faces and horns and everything! 

Star took a few moments to admire her work, and then she used her wand to make duplicates of the cupcakes. She wasn’t sure if the cupcakes would actually reach Pony Head before her birthday, so her plan was to give her besty a sneak peak at her special birthday treat when they got to talk on the mirror that day.

After putting the extra cakes aside, Star magically packaged up the ones she was actually sending to St. Olga’s for Pony Head, and attached a magically-created card (one that would play Pony Head’s favorite set from the Bounce Longue DJ) to the ribbon. 

Once the package was ready to be sent, she whipped out her compact and dialed the number of the interdimensional delivery service. 

When the voice on the other side picked up, Star began to speak. “Hi, this is Star Butterfly. I’d like to request a special super-quick delivery for a Flying Princess Pony Head? Where is she? St. Olga’s Reform School for Wayward Princesses.” 

She took a moment to suppress the scream that she wanted to let out from the thought of that place, managing to let out a shudder instead, before continuing the conversation with the delivery guy on the other end of the line. “Well, if you can get it there in three days, I’d really appreciate that? That’s gonna cost extra? No problem, I can give you some crowns as soon as you get over here. You’ll be over in a minute? Okay, thank you, bye!” 

With the call finished, Star pressed the “end” button on her compact and closed it, placing the device on the counter besides the package. Less than a minute later, a portal opened up in front of her, and a burly-looking troll wearing a uniform stepped out. 

“Delivery for a Miss Star Butterfly for a Miss Flying Princess Pony Head?” he asked, glancing at the clipboard he held in his hands. 

“Here you go” Star said, happily handing him the package containing the cupcakes. “Oh, and be extra careful with that package, please. It’s really, really special.” 

The delivery troll just rolled his eyes at her request. He then carefully moved the package so he could hold it and his clipboard in one arm, holding the other out to Star expectedly. 

For a brief moment, Star was confused – and then it hit her. 

“Oh, yeah…sorry about that” she said with a sheepish grin as she grabbed her wand and summoned a bag full of Mewnian crowns, which she placed in the hand of the waiting troll. “Thanks again for your help. I really, really appreciate it.” 

Again, the troll didn’t acknowledge her; he simply placed the bag of coins onto a loop in his belt and stepped back through the portal with a grunt. The portal closed as soon as the delivery troll stepped through, once again leaving Star alone in the kitchen. 

With her present to Pony Head on its way to be delivered, and the knowledge that she would be able to talk to her besty in a couple days, all of the sad feelings that Star had been experiencing before had melted away, replaced with eagerness and happy anticipation. 

“What happened in here?” Marco’s voice caught Star’s attention, making her look around the room…and see the mess that had remained after she’d finished making the cupcakes, including the batter splattered over her arms, and clothes. 

“I was just making Pony Head’s birthday treats, that’s all. It was pretty fun, so it got a little messy, I guess” she explained with a shrug. She picked up her wand and continued, “And it’s not like this isn’t anything a little magic can’t take care of.” 

To help demonstrate this point, she used the wand to cast a spell, which left her and the kitchen completely spotless. 

This answer seemed to satisfy Marco; and considering how long he’d been living with Star, and having to deal with stuff like this on a frequent basis, there was little reason why it would do otherwise. 

“Okay, then” he said, shrugging his shoulders slightly as he walked closer to the counter. “I was just feeling a bit hungry, so I figured I’d take a break and grab something for a snack. Speaking of which – those cupcakes actually smell really good. Do you mind if I…?” 

As he spoke, he began to reach for the extra cupcakes that Star had created and left sitting on the counter. 

Rather than answer with words, the princess reacted in a more…physical way: suddenly bonking the back of his hand with the bell of her wand. She didn’t hit him very hard at all – just hard enough to stop him from continuing to try and grab one of the cupcakes. 

Yes, Marco did flinch from the act, but based on his expression, it seemed to be more out of surprise and slight annoyance, as opposed to any actual, physical pain. 

Even Star was kind of shocked by what she’d done – she really hadn’t been thinking when she did it; and almost as soon as Marco pulled his hand away, her own hands went to cover her mouth as she gasped. 

“Sorry” she told him, grabbing his hand and rubbing it gently in an attempt to both relieve any pain that may have resulted from the blow, and help demonstrate just how sorry she was for hitting him in the first place. 

The boy seemed to accept the action, at least at first; but after a few seconds, he gently pulled his hand away, muttering, “It’s fine” as he did so. 

Star thought his cheeks looked a little red, but she wasn’t sure and didn’t want to risk making him upset by asking about it. 

Instead, she decided to try and explain why she had done what she did; it may not have been necessary, but the idea of him thinking she’d done that for no real reason didn’t sit right with her. “I wanted to show Pony Head what she was getting for her birthday surprise” she said, motioning vaguely towards the cupcakes. 

Marco just nodded in response, before backing away slightly. “Like I said, it’s fine. I’ll just grab something else to eat” he told her as he stepped over to the fridge. 

Star watched as he opened the door and pulled out an apple, which he began to eat as he walked out of the kitchen and went back upstairs. 

After he was gone, she couldn’t help but let out a sigh. Apparently there were still some issues with their plan of trying to act like things were the same as ever between them, if he seemed so reluctant to even let her take his hand for more than a few seconds. 

But, she didn’t want to think about that; especially not when she had much happier things to focus on instead – like the call she was going to make to Pony Head on her birthday! 

Thinking about being able to see and talk to her friend in the first time in months had exactly the effect Star was hoping for; any uneasy feelings faded away, replaced with so much excitement that the princess had to stop herself from literally dancing around the room as she thought about the upcoming event. Even doing her best to remain relatively calm, she was still bouncing on the balls of her feet as she magically put the cupcakes from the counter into a special box that would keep them fresh until after Pony Head’s birthday. 

She just couldn’t help it – literally everything about this situation was making her so happy and so excited. 

Well, almost everything; she had to admit that waiting for the day to actually come was going to be almost impossible, especially because she had never been a very patient person. She would do her best to be patient, however, even if she knew it was going to be hard. 

After all, she knew she had to count herself lucky that King Pony Head had even arranged for this to happen. The last thing she needed to do was risk him changing his mind and telling the people at St. Olga’s to take it back because Star was being too impatient and ended up annoying everyone because she just couldn’t wait to talk to her best friend again. 

So, she would do her best to be patient until that day. 

Besides, how hard could it really be? Pony Head’s birthday was only three days away – that was nothing compared to how long Star’d been waiting to finally receive her magic wand, so it should be pretty easy to wait it out…right?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a Saturday – which meant no school, and thus she could sleep in as late as she wanted – but Star was not only up bright and early, but was also bursting with so much energy that she literally jumped out of bed as she awoke. 

Normally she would probably sleep until at least noon (or close to it), if Marco didn’t wake her up. However, this day was special: it was Pony Head’s birthday! And that meant that Star was going to be able to talk to her later, which was more than enough to get her excited enough that she couldn’t stay in bed a second longer. 

Sure, she wouldn’t actually be able to call Pony Head until a little while later, but that didn’t change anything about how eager Star was. 

All it really meant is that Star had more time to think about just how great her besty’s birthday was going to be…though that also meant thinking about how much better it could be, if she wasn’t stuck at St. Olga’s Reform School for Wayward Princesses.

Even just thinking about the place made Star want to scream, and she had to grab a pillow to muffle herself as she did just that; she didn’t know if the Diazes were awake yet, and she didn’t want to wake them up like that if she could help it. 

Once she was able to think clearly again, Star continued to think about how much better Pony Head’s birthday would be if she was able to actually go out: the two of them could have so much fun, going to all their favorite places and just hanging out, having the time of their lives from sunrise until after sunset. It was kind of sad to think about what they were missing out on with Pony Head having to be stuck at _that_ school, of all places. 

“No.” Star said firmly, shaking her head as though that would likewise shake the thoughts away. “I am _not_ gonna be sad on my besty’s birthday day – I am going to be happy and give her a great call and present so she can be happy, too.” 

With that thought in mind, Star went on with her day, enjoying herself by hanging out with Marco, all the while mentally keeping track of how much longer it would be until she’d be able to talk to Pony Head. 

When it was almost time, she suddenly leapt up from the couch – where she and Marco were watching a movie – and excused herself before running upstairs. 

She heard Marco calling her name, but she didn’t stop, only calling back that she would be back down in a few minutes. Star rushed into her room, digging under her bed for the extra box of cupcakes that she had stored under there.

Thankfully, the spell she’d put on the box before stashing it under the bed – a fairly easy one that would keep the cupcakes fresh for up to a week – had persisted, so the cakes were as fresh as the day she baked them. Maybe when she was done talking with Pony Head, she could take the cupcakes downstairs and share them with Marco while they finished their movie…

Or, maybe not, Star thought to herself as her stomach began to churn, a now very familiar precursor to what was about to follow. 

Leaving the box on the ground, the Mewnian princess rushed into the bathroom, holding her stomach with one hand and covering her mouth with the other. 

Once her stomach was empty and she had washed the taste out of her mouth, Star headed back into her bedroom to await the call from Pony Head. 

“Guess I’m not gonna be having any of those cupcakes” she thought aloud to herself as she sat on her bed, placing the box of cupcakes beside her. The thought made her frown slightly, despite how excited she was to get to talk to Pony Head; she had been looking forward to the cupcakes – they’d be fun to make, so she’d figured they’d also be fun to eat. 

Unfortunately, she’d long since learned that trying to eat anything too soon after her nausea struck would do little more than result in a “repeat performance”, thus making the whole thing of eating the food completely pointless, and just making her kind of miserable besides. 

“Marco’ll probably like them, though” she said, continuing her train of thought. It wasn’t an unrealistic thought, considering how eager he’d been to try the cupcakes back when she had first made them. That thought cheered her up considerably, though she still wasn’t feeling great – something she wanted to remedy before she made her call to Pony Head. 

Fortunately, the reason for her feeling not so great was physical, which meant she knew a very quick and easy way to handle it: with magic. 

Star grabbed her wand and used it to summon a glass of ginger ale, which she sipped slowly. It didn’t do much right away (besides putting a much more pleasant taste in her mouth), but that didn’t bother Star; she knew that however the ginger ale worked, it would settle her stomach and make her feel so much better, after a few minutes. She just hoped it would take effect before Pony Head’s call; she really didn’t want to have to think of an excuse for why she looked like she was going to be sick when talking with her besty on her birthday day. 

Trying her best to stay positive about the whole thing, Star finished the ginger ale and then vanished the glass away to…wherever those kinds of spells went when she was done with them. 

However, having her wand in her hand – combined with thinking about Pony Head’s call, and where said call was coming from – got Star to start wondering something. 

For years, her biggest fear had been being sent to St. Olga’s, and while that had recently be replaced with someone finding out her new secret, it was still a very prevalent concern in her mind; she still had to suppress the urge to at least shudder at just the thought of going to the prison-like school, after all. 

And despite her parents choosing to send her to Earth when she’d made of mess of things after getting her wand, she was still very much afraid of the possibility that one day, the guards from the school would come after her, just like they’d come for Pony Head and that one princess with the camera phone who’d tried to zap Star’s face off to get her sent to St. Olga’s instead. She had been worried about the possibility for so long…but now she actually had an idea of how to avoid it. 

“Copycat clone creation” she said, aiming her wand and trying to focus on what she wanted the spell to do. 

She actually focused so hard that she winched her eyes shut, and couldn’t even tell what was happening with the spell until the light and sound had faded away. And when she opened her eyes to see the result of her spell, she gasped in horror.

Apparently either her pregnancy was still messing with her magic, or this was just outside her skill level, because that did not work out how she was hoping it would. 

She’d been trying to create a copy of herself that would be used as a distraction if she needed it; but, while the bottom half of the spell-created…thing was pretty much spot-on, the upper half was another story entirely. It basically looked like an odd bunch of flesh-colored clay that wobbled slightly as the legs walked around the room blindly. 

Not wanting to look at the thing any long, Star tossed a rug over it, causing it to fall to the ground, where it stayed, just kicking its legs around as though that would allow it to get anywhere. 

“I am never trying something like that again” Star vowed as she watched the legs of the thing she’d created continue to kick about. 

She suddenly remembered what time it was, and was immediately filled with joy. She danced over to the mirror, pressed the dial button on the side, and instructed the magic mirror: “Call…St. Olga’s School for Wayward Princesses, room of Princess Pony Head.” 

She spoke quickly in order to get all the words out before the mirror automatically dialed. Her parents had given her the exact instructions on where to call, and she had been careful to not mess it up. After all, she only had one chance to talk to Pony Head today, and she was pretty sure that they’d count her call even if she messed up and Pony Head never actually got it. 

She waited anxiously for several seconds as the mirror connected her call; until it made the connection, she had no way of knowing if she’d “dialed” correctly or not. 

Finally, the mirror’s screen was full of static for a brief second, before it faded to show Princess Pony Head floating in front of her own mirror. Star let out a breath that she didn’t even realize she was holding as the relief flooded through her. 

“Pony Head! Oh, it is so great to see you again!” the princess exclaimed, her voice filled with joy as she looked at her best friend for the first time since she’d be taken away to the school. 

To Star’s immense surprise and delight, Pony Head seemed virtually unchanged from the last time they had seen each other – not only was her physical appearance the same, but her eyes still had that familiar glint that let anyone who was familiar with the pony princess know that she was willing to do basically anything if it meant having a good time. 

It was still hard to see her stuck in a place that looked so boring and cold, but at least it seemed like whatever they did to destroy princesses there hadn’t gotten to Pony Head. Maybe she would even be able to leave that place without being too changed…though Star knew Pony Head would never be able to leave the same as she went in; that place…changed people, and not for the better. 

“Hey, B-Fly, what’s up?” Pony Head asked with a smile. 

It was pretty clear that she was just as excited for this “reunion” as Star was, though it seemed to Star like she was acting a lot more subdued than normal. But, she wasn’t going to focus on that – not when there were much better things to think about instead. For example, the whole reason they were having this conversation in the first place: wishing Pony Head a happy birthday. 

Without another word, Star suddenly burst into a little song and dance number, where she expressed her desire to wish Pony Head a happy birthday. Even Star had to admit it probably wasn’t the best song in the world, but the important thing was that it got her happiness across and helped spread it to her friend; and based on the way Pony Head’s eyes seemed to subtly light up when she was finished, it seemed like it worked just fine. 

“And,” she continued after finishing her little “show”, “there’s a special delivery coming right your way.” 

With that, she reached over and grabbed the copy-cupcakes to show them to Pony Head. The movement seemed to agitate them slightly, causing the magical fireworks to start going off – but that just added to the effect Star was going for, so she didn’t have any issues with it. At first, Pony Head seemed almost confused by what her friend was saying, but her confusion changed instantly to joy as Star actually showed her the cupcakes. 

After Star explained why she’d made the cupcakes, Pony Head became as animated as Star would have expected as she thanked her…but then she suddenly changed. 

“I mean…a princess such as myself cannot indulge in such confections. But would you please donate them to the starving bartendens of Galafamor on my behalf?” she said, her face looking practically dead and her tone sounding especially drained. 

Star could do nothing but stare for a few seconds, before questioning if Pony Head had bumped her horn…again. The only other time she’d acted anywhere even close to this – refusing treats and talking like she didn’t care about…anything – was one time when she had slammed her horn into a low-hanging tree branch while the two of them were running away from a “game” they had been playing with the royal guards/Star’s babysitters when they were young. 

It had been weird seeing Pony Head act that way then, and it was just as weird now. 

Though, if Pony Head had hit her horn, then Star was wondering if the people at the school actually knew how to take care of her. From what she remembered about the last time this had happened, King Pony Head had made it clear that a horn injury had to be taken care of in a certain way; and who knew if anyone at that school had any idea how to do that? Needless to say, Star was very concerned about her best friend’s well-being. 

However, what Pony Head said next made it clear that her horn was just fine: “Girl, you know we can’t receive packages here at St. Olga’s School for Wayward Princesses.” 

Hearing the name of that place made Star panic, causing her to drop the tray of cupcakes as she ran away, looking for a place to hide. 

In her haste to hide, she tripped over the thing she had created, which wriggled uncomfortably at the interaction. 

Star didn’t have the time – or the desire – to see what was up with the failed spell, instead focusing on diving inside her chest on the other side of the room and slamming the lid shut, closing her in the darkness. 

The more logical part of her mind kept telling her that she didn’t need to hide, that no one from the school was coming to get her. But, while that part of her brain was simply telling her this information, the larger part was literally screaming that she didn’t actually know nobody was coming to take her away, and therefore, it was best to hide, at least until she could figure out what else to do to avoid being sent away. 

Star was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard Pony Head’s voice calling her in a concerned voice. 

This brought Star back to the present, reminding her of the importance of today. It was Pony Head’s birthday, and Star had promised to herself that she’d make it the best birthday possible for her trapped friend. She couldn’t exactly keep that promise from inside her chest, now could she? 

Star answered her own question aloud, muttering, “Probably not”, before somewhat reluctantly climbing out of the chest. 

As a way to explain her reaction, Star stated, “I can’t even stand to hear the name of that place.”

Yes, she had said the name a few days ago (and just a few minutes ago, when she’d made the call), but that had been really hard, and the only reason she’d made herself say it was because she wanted to make sure Pony Head got her package. 

Now there was nothing to make it any easier to think about that horrible place. 

Apparently Pony Head didn’t appreciate what her friend was saying, as she pointed out to Star that she was the one who was actually stuck in the prison-like school, while Star was at least free to do basically whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. 

Star sighed. Pony Head was right – she had no right to complain in this situation. But, she couldn’t help but bring up her disappointment, especially on this day, where it was especially hard to think about the fact that Pony Head was locked up.

Normally they would be having all kinds of fun, going to all their favorite and exciting hang-outs, but this year, the most they could do was just talk to each other. Sure, it was better than nothing, but it didn’t even come close to actually being able to go out and have fun. 

While there was a part of her that didn’t want to make Pony Head feel bad, Star couldn’t help but start rambling a little about all the stuff that they could be doing that would make Pony Head’s birthday really worthwhile; and the more things she listed, the more excited she got as she imagined they actually going out and doing all those fun activities. 

As Star finished describing what they could have been doing, Pony Head’s eyes lit up and she excitedly agreed with her friend regarding how great those ideas sounded. Her excited expression melted away and was replaced with fear as a door could be heard creaking open from somewhere out of the mirror’s view. 

Star could only watch in horror as some guards entered the room and dragged her friend away. 

Once Pony Head was out of sight, the girl collapsed to the floor in tears as everything came crashing down on her. Not only was Pony Head going to have to be stuck in that horrible school for her birthday, but now she was going to have something awful happen to her! 

Yes, Star didn’t actually how what this solitary conform-ment chamber did, but based on the name and how Pony Head was acting, she knew it couldn’t be anything good. 

She was so distracted by her own thoughts and tears that she didn’t even notice Marco coming into the room until he was literally right in front of her, asking if she wanted to go out and fight some monsters.

She appreciated what he was trying to do: he wanted to cheer her up, just like he’d done when Oskar didn’t call her that one time. But, it wasn’t going to work this time; this was a much bigger deal than wanting to get a call from a super-cute boy from school, and fighting monsters wasn’t going to fix things, not at all. 

Still, it was enough to get her to stop crying…for a few seconds, before she started sobbing again. 

She did take the time to try and explain why she was so upset, partly to let Marco know why she was rejecting his offer, and partly to try and see if he’d be willing to help her. 

Now, more than ever, she knew she had to rescue Pony Head from that terrible place while there was still time; but she couldn’t do it alone – she needed help, and she knew there was no one better suited for the task of rescuing one of her best friends than her other best friend.

Perhaps not too surprisingly, upon hearing Pony Head’s name, Marco’s enthusiasm seemed to drain away. 

“I’m out of here,” he announced as he turned to leave. 

That was enough to completely snap Star out of her funk. She needed to rescue her friend, and for that, she needed Marco’s help. Maybe her friends weren’t exactly friends with each other (yet), but she knew she could convince Marco to help rescue Pony Head…somehow. 

She called to him, desperately declaring, “We have to get her out of that prison!” 

She was prepared to try and give some kind of speech to convince him, but that ended up not being necessary. 

Apparently just describing the school as a prison was enough to get Marco to agree to help with the rescue, even if it was probably less to do with helping Pony Head and more to do with the fact that he seemed to find the idea of a break-out fun. Not like that really bothered Star – she knew he wasn’t really close to Pony Head like she was, and if it weren’t for the fact that Pony Head was in trouble, she’d probably love the idea of a break-out, too; after all, it did sound like it’d be a pretty exciting experience. 

After taking a few moments to prepare – including Marco grabbing a bobby pin out of one of Star’s dresser drawers – Star pulled out her scissors and cut open a portal to Pony Head’s cell in the school. 

She and Marco stepped through…only to come out of the portal and into somewhere outside. When Marco pointed out the mistake, Star frowned and looked at her scissors in confusion. 

“I’m usually pretty accurate with these things…” she said, wondering what had gone wrong. 

Sure, she’d sometimes been a little off the mark when it came to “aiming” the portals, but she’d figured they’d at least be in the school after leaving the portal. She had no idea if they were even close to the place at the moment, and therefore had no idea where to go from here. 

Her thoughts were interrupted as a large portal opened up in front of the two of them. 

They managed to jump out of the way and out of sight in just enough time to avoid being seen, or hit, by a carriage that came thundering through the portal and towards a huge castle with a gate in front of it. 

They watched from behind a rock as several princesses stepped out of the carriage and someone in front of the gate welcomed them to…St. Olga’s School for Wayward Princesses. 

Upon hearing the name, Star began to scream, though she stopped when she heard Marco say something about blending in so they could get inside. That sparked an idea in Star’s mind and she pulled out her wand. 

She thought of a quick wish that this spell would go as planned and then exclaimed, “Radiant shadow transform!” 

For a brief second, she was covered with light, which faded to reveal that her dress had been transformed into a sort of rebel princess outfit, complete with spiked boots and a cool eye patch.

Marco let out a sound of amazement at the results of her spell. 

“Do me! Do me!” he insisted, sounding very eager…at first. Something suddenly seemed to dawn on the boy, as his tone immediately changed and his face went very red. 

“No…that’s not what I…I don’t want you to…What I meant was…” Marco stammered, clearly unable to find the words he was actually trying to say. 

Star just raised an eyebrow, wondering why he was making such a big deal out of the whole thing, before performing the spell on him as well.

After the spell took effect, Marco seemed to calm down, saying, “Yeah…that’s what I meant…” 

His face still looked a little red, and his cheeks got even redder as he looked down to see Star’s spell had disguised him as another princess, including a fancy pink gown. He expressed his displeasure at her choice of disguise for him, demanding to know why she didn’t turn him into one of the guards. 

Star just argued that pink was his color, and the two of them snuck over to the other princesses without another word. 

Thankfully, nobody seemed to question their being with the group, and they were soon led inside the school without any questions or issues. Star did her best to remain calm, though her heart was pounding with every step she made towards the doors of the school, and by the time they were inside, she felt like it was going to break her chest open with how hard it was beating against it. 

She tried thinking of things to make her happy – to calm her down – and it worked, though her heart was still beating a little faster than normal. 

The group was forced to watch a video about the school, before being led to a hall where the headmistress – a stern-looking woman with curly grey hair, who looked older than she probably was – came out to greet them. Though, perhaps inspect was a more fitting word, considering she didn’t give them any sort of welcome. 

Instead, she simply gave the group a sort of disdainful glance, before continuing on to explain what would be happening to them while they remained at the school. 

“After you have been settled into your dormitories, you will begin your proper education. Over the course of your time here at St. Olga’s, you will each learn the proper way to speak, act, and present yourself to uphold the sanctity of your family name” the headmistress – who, according to the Cyclops who had led them inside, was named Miss Heinous - said as she paced in front of the girls, looking at them as if to gauge their reactions. 

Star was doing her best to avoid showing her fear, knowing that doing so would risk them getting caught before they could find Pony Head and get somewhere safe, but it was hard to ignore the pounding of her heart and the sickening feeling in her stomach – though she wasn’t quite sure if that was the usual nausea, or the result of her fear of being caught. She was distracted from these thoughts when Miss Heinous continued to speak. 

“You will be given your dormitory numbers in a moment, but there is something that must be done before you can be properly settled in,” she began, taking a moment to look at the group before continuing. “I am well aware that princesses as…willful as the lot of you are often overly…precocious when it comes to being intimate with boys, and that the activities you take part in often have…unforeseen and unwanted consequences. These consequences reflect very poorly on you, as well as on your family names. As proper princesses, you cannot afford to bring that degree of shame to your families, now can you? But, there is no need to fear – once you have been given your dormitory numbers, you will each be a mandatory test, and if the results turn up anything concerning, then it will be promptly taken care of.” 

Star felt her blood turn to ice as she realized what the headmistress meant, and that just made her all the more anxious to get out of there as quickly as possible. And when Miss Heinous touched the heart on her cheek, indicating that she was familiar with Mewnian princesses, that just made her fear grow. 

She couldn’t help but think about what would happen if this rescue mission failed: not only would she be trapped in this horrible place forever; but if the tests Miss Heinous mentioned worked on her, then she would also lose her baby. She wasn’t completely ignorant – she knew exactly what the elderly woman meant when she said things would be taken care of. 

That wasn’t even thinking about how Marco would react, finding out about the baby in that way. Star was already too afraid of how he might respond to tell him just yet, but she knew that him finding out like this would be much worse than if she just told him the truth herself. 

“Are you going to be okay?” she heard Marco whisper, his voice just barely loud enough to catch her attention. 

This was enough to distract Star from her worries – at least for the moment. 

She tried to think of how to respond; she couldn’t lie and say she was fine, because he would be able to tell she was lying about that, with a doubt. At the same time, she definitely couldn’t tell him the real reason why she was freaking out so much. 

So, she thought of another solution: telling him a sort of half-truth, instead of either a complete lie or the actual truth. 

“I..I just really can’t stand this place” she whispered back, unable to keep herself from stammering. It helped that what she was saying was technically true, even if it wasn’t the real reason why she was freaking out so much at the moment.

They couldn’t speak again for a few moments as Miss Heinous turned her attention back to the princesses, explaining that the school had a special crystal that made it impossible to create portals inside the school; and that they should all just give up their scissors. Star was about to do just that, but Marco stopped her, reminding her that they could use the scissors to escape once they disabled the crystal. 

Once Miss Heinous was out of earshot, he gave her a reassuring look and said, “Don’t worry – all we have to do is find Pony Head, get rid of that crystal, and then we’ll be out of here for good.” 

Star had her doubts that it was going to be that simple – based on the horror stories she’d heard about St. Olga’s, and what she’d already seen in the few minutes she’d been here, she knew this place was one of the hardest places to escape from; and that wasn’t even getting into the fact that they had to find Pony Head and find a way to destroy the crystal that kept them trapped her…before they got caught and were stuck here forever. 

At the same time, what he said reminded her that she wasn’t doing this alone…maybe with two of them working together, they could actually manage to do it. 

“You’re right” she said in a low voice, trying to give a smile that wouldn’t betray the fear she was still feeling. “Let’s just find Pony Head so we can get out of here…Question is, how are we going to find her? It’s not like the guards are just gonna let us walk around until we find her cell.” 

For a second, it seemed like Marco was just as unsure of what to do as Star was, and that made her start to worry again. The only reason she was able to calm herself down in the first place was because she could convince herself that between his plans and her magic, they could find a way out of this horrible place. But, if he really didn’t have a plan, then obviously her own idea wasn’t going to work! 

Fortunately, after a moment, it seemed like he did have an idea, and he held up a finger to signal for her to be quiet. And that ended up being the right thing to do, as the very next moment, Miss Heinous’s assistant walked over to the group, instructing them to follow him to where they’d be given their dormitory numbers. 

As the other princesses began to follow him down the corridor, Marco, in a high-pitched voice, called, “I hear the first one checked in gets her own room!” 

For a moment, Star was confused, wondering how this was supposed to help them sneak away so they could find Pony Head. She got her answer very shortly after, as Marco’s announcement seemed to excite the other girls, and they instantly began to run away, with the headmistress’s assistant and the guards racing after them in an attempt to maintain order. 

This left Star and Marco unattended, meaning they were able to do whatever they needed to do. 

While the guards and the assistant followed the other princesses, the two teens snuck away in the opposite direction, being careful to hide when another guard passed them by. 

They continued to search for Pony Head, Star getting more and more anxious to leave as she saw what the school was really like (it was honestly worse than she ever could have imagined, and considering the images her brain had been coming up with ever since she’d first learned about the school, that was saying something), while Marco – much to Star’s horror – actually praised the school at several points, both for the décor and for what it was doing to the princesses who were sent there.

Star tried to convince him that he was wrong about the school not being that bad, but her attempts to do so didn’t work, so she went back to focusing on trying to find Pony Head. Once they found her, they’d be leaving this awful place behind for good, so it wasn’t as if it ultimately mattered if Marco didn’t realize that St. Olga’s really was a place of nightmares. 

They continued to sneak around the school, being careful to avoid attracting any attention to themselves and being quick to hide whenever someone happened to be coming towards them. 

Since they had no way of telling which of the dormitories was Pony Head’s, they were forced to peak inside each one, hoping to find the princess of the Cloud Kingdom. 

It took a few moments of searching, but eventually they looked inside one of the rooms and found Pony Head floating by and looking out the window. 

Her mane was styled into a braid, rather than being left loose, which started a slight nagging sensation in the back of Star’s mind that something wasn’t right. But, that sensation was pushed way to the back of her mind by the overwhelming feeling of joy and excitement that she felt at finally finding her friend again. 

These feelings were so strong that she actually completely forgot that they were supposed to be sneaking around, and literally bounced into the room, loudly singing the happy birthday song, the moment Marco had picked open the locked with his bobby pin. 

“Do you want us to get caught?” Marco whispered harshly as he came into the room as well. 

Star blushed a little at the reminder, and lowered her voice considerably to apologize, before turning to Pony Head and calling her name. The ponyhead princess didn’t respond at all, simply continuing to stare out the window. 

The lack of a reaction made Star start to worry, but she tried to shake it off, deciding instead to just try again to get her friend’s attention.

“Hey, c’mon, Pony Head. We came here to break you out so we can party, and you can have the best birthday day ever” she said, hoping the promise of partying would get Pony Head to respond. 

The good news is that it did illicit a response from the birthday girl; the bad news was that once she turned around, Star almost wished she hadn’t. Pony Head’s eyes were wide and empty; her face was unnaturally pale; and while she was smiling, it wasn’t a normally, genuinely happy smile – it was tense and twisted, like she was in severe pain but was being forced to smile through it. 

Star could only gape in horror at what she saw, and that horrified feeling only intensified when Pony Head spoke, in a voice and tone that was so unlike her own. “My deepest apologies, but I must abstain, as partying is for the unrefined.” 

Star felt her heart begin to break; what had they done to her? This was not the Pony Head she knew and loved – and she said as much to Marco. 

The boy didn’t seem as concerned about the situation, simply trying to get Pony Head’s attention by announcing, “It’s Earth Turd!” 

However, the only reaction this got out of Pony Head was her scolding Marco for his language, and even then, she didn’t even sound angry. It was more like she was simply reciting something from memory, without putting any emotion into what she was saying. 

For a few seconds, Marco stayed silent, and Star thought that maybe he was starting to see just how horrible St. Olga’s really was. 

“You know…I kind of like her better this way” he admitted. 

Star was briefly hit with the desire to hit him – a thought that shocked even her, but given the situation, she couldn’t help but think of it. There were more important things to worry about, however, so she quickly squashed that thought down and instead turned her attention back to Pony Head. 

She walked over to her friend, grabbed her, and started to shake her, hoping that maybe she could rattle her enough to shake her out of whatever trance or spell or whatever horrible thing had been done to her.

Sadly, it seemed to have no effect, as the only thing Pony Head did once Star finally gave up with the shaking was to offer her fellow princess some crumpets…whatever those were supposed to be. 

Feeling overwhelmed with despair, she released Pony Head and turned to her other friend. 

“You see, Marco? This is what they do to you here – they suck out everything that make you…you, and just turn you into this!” she exclaimed tearfully as she gestured towards Pony Head, whose expression didn’t change outside of her blinking her eyes once. 

“Star, you need to relax – you’re going to get us caught if you don’t” Marco said, his tone somewhat stern, but the expression on his face making it clear that he was concerned about the situation, even if not in the way Star wished he would be. “Besides, I’m sure Pony Head’s going to be just fine once we destroy that crystal and get out of this place. She might even be able to actually be a benefit to society after all this.” 

For the most part, Star just kind of tuned out what he was saying after he told her to relax. 

The only thing after that point that really managed to catch her attention was him reminding her of their ultimately goal with this rescue mission: to find a way to get rid of the crystal stopping them from using the dimensional scissors, and leave this place behind forever. Thinking about escaping also helped her come up with a great idea, which helped her brighten up considerably. 

“Yeah, yeah, sure” she said, waving her hand dismissively at Marco’s suggestion (whatever it was), before continuing, “Or, when we get back to Mewni, I can use my magic or see if the alchemists have some potions that can turn her back to normal, so I can have the old Pony Head back.”

Based on the sound he made, it didn’t seem like Marco had quite the same opinion of her plan, but he didn’t actually say anything against it. Instead, he just went over to the fireplace that was built into the room and started grabbing what seemed like random objects. 

“What are you doing?” Star asked as she watched him collecting the different objects.

“I told you – I’ve seen all the prison break movies. This is going to help get us out of here” Marco replied, carefully putting the things that were in his arms on the ground.  
“…That doesn’t answer my –“ Star began, unable to keep herself from sounding a little annoyed, before cutting herself off as she realized what he was doing. “Oh…” she said in realization, watching as he continued to try and put together the different things he’d grabbed into something that looked almost, sort of, like Pony Head. 

Or, at least, it might look a bit like her in the dark, which would probably be enough to distract the guards long enough for them to find a way to get to the tower with the crystal. 

At first, she was actually kind of fascinated by what he was doing…but then she just got frustrated because of how long it was taking. Yes, it was only taking a few minutes, but considering a guard could come by at any second, that felt like an eternity. 

“Okay, let me help” she said, kneeling down beside him and pulling out her wand. 

Hoping that the spell would work as intended, she thought of a quick spell and shot it at his half-finished project, which quickly whipped itself together, including pulling itself up by a rope so it looked a little like it was floating. It also put a very disturbing image into the two teens’ minds, but they were happy to ignore that thought in favor of continuing with their escape attempt. 

Unfortunately, it seemed like their plan wasn’t going to go as smoothly as they hoped, as the moment they got out of Pony Head’s cell, she actually started calling for the guards to capture them! 

This got the guards to start chasing after them, and while they eventually managed to escape into a laundry room after causing a distraction with some of the other princesses in the tea room, they were eventually split up. 

Star, holding Pony Head, was able to climb into and slide down a laundry chute, but Marco’s dress got stuck in the opening and he was grabbed before he could manage to free himself. The last thing Star saw before entering the pure darkness of the chute was Marco being pulled away and vanishing from her sight. 

After a few moments of falling, she landed in a pile of dirty laundry with a light thump. She then rolled down the pile until she hit the floor of the laundry room, at which point she picked up Pony Head and turned her friend so they could look each other in the eyes. 

“You gotta help me save him, please! I can’t do this alone” she pleaded, tears starting to blur her vision as they formed in her eyes. 

For a moment, it looked like Pony Head might be able to snap out of whatever had been done to make her into this…perfect princess robot, but instead she just recited some other quote that she’d been fed. 

Oddly enough, Star didn’t start crying at this, despite the fact that the tears were threatening to fall just seconds before. 

Rather, she just became kind of…numb, unable to feel much of anything as she just flopped down onto the floor next to the pile of laundry. And for a few moments, that was all she did: just lay on the floor next to a dirty pile of worn dresses and skirts and whatever else was in that pile. 

There really wasn’t anything else she could do; she wasn’t lying when she said she couldn’t do this alone, and now neither of her besties could help her, with Pony Head being like this, and Marco…Star didn’t even want to imagine what was happening to him. 

So, all she could do was lie and wait until she was captured as well, and put through the same things as her friends. 

While lying on the floor, she turned her head towards the wall and saw a poster with a message written on it – obviously some kind of a slogan for the school. She read the slogan aloud, and for some reason, that caused her to become incredibly angry. 

Running over to the poster, she screamed, “Embrace this!” as she began to smack it with a broom she had picked up. It didn’t do anything – she hadn’t expected it to, she was just so frustrated that she needed to take that feeling out on something – and after a few seconds, the feelings of anger and frustration she was feeling were replaced with despair and hopelessness. 

All of a sudden, it fully hit her just what was going to happen to her. 

Soon enough, the guards would find them and capture them; she would be forced to take one of those tests Miss Heinous mentioned, and they would find out about and kill her baby; if Marco was still himself, he’d find out about the baby and hate her forever; and it wouldn’t even matter, because she’d be turned into a robot like Pony Head, and never able to go home again anyway, because after those tests, everyone back home would know she’d broken the law. 

She was going to be left with nothing but this horrible place for the rest of her life. Everything else – her home, her parents, her two best friends, her baby – they were all going to be taken away from her forever, and there was nothing she could do about it. 

With those thoughts swirling in her head, the despair completely overwhelmed her and she began to sob, holding nothing back as she simply collapsed and continued to cry into her arms.

It wasn’t until she heard a familiar laugh that she finally stopped crying and looked up; and what she saw when she did made her heart positively swell with happiness. 

“Pony Head?” Star began, almost unable to believe what she was seeing. The feeling of disbelief was quickly dispelled and she grabbed her friend for a hug as she squealed, “You’re back!” 

However, they couldn’t celebrate Pony Head’s return for long, as mere seconds later, Marco’s screams echoed through the laundry room. 

Even Pony Head, who Star had accepted did not like Marco as much as she did, seemed genuinely concerned when she heard the cry. She even offered to help rescue him when Star sadly admitted that Heinous had captured the boy, much to Star’s delight. 

She knew she couldn’t have saved Marco by herself, but with Pony Head’s help, it was going to be a snap! 

With the help of Pony Head (specifically her horn), the Mewnian princess was able to get into the ventilation system of the school, where she began to crawl towards Marco’s location. 

There were several points where she reached a junction, and was left unaware of which way to go, while also knowing that a wrong move could prove disastrous for everyone involved with the current rescue mission. Thankfully, it didn’t usually take long for Marco to yell again, which made figuring out the right way to go rather simple. 

However, while the screams made it easier to figure out the way to him, each cry also made Star’s stomach twist itself into a tighter and tighter knot. She wasn’t sure what was happening to him, but she was sure it wasn’t anything good. 

She just hoped that they’d be able to reach him before anything too bad happened to him – for both his sake and the sake of whoever was putting him through the experience. 

Normally Star didn’t like to be too violent with her spells (even when fighting Ludo and his monsters, she tried to avoid the spells that would hurt them too badly, since her goal was never to cause serious injury, just to chase them away), but if these people had crossed the line, then she would as well. 

After a few moments of crawling, the princesses reached a vent cover. Star peered through the openings in the vent to see what was inside the room, and saw Marco, still in his princess disguise, strapped to a chair and being forced to watch some kind of strange video. Without a second thought, Star pulled out her wand and blasted away the vent cover, giving her access into the room. 

“I’m busting our way out of here, Marco. You got a problem with that?” she asked, not expecting or waiting for an answer before she summoned a giant butterfly monster to smash through the glass of the back wall of the room. 

The time for sneaking around had long since passed, and now the magical princess was quick to use her spells to aid in their escape. Well, she did limit her use somewhat, as the risk of a magical burst was still high, and she didn’t want to take a higher chance of something happening to impede their progress than was really necessary.

As the three teenagers ran towards the entrance of the school, they passed by a hall where several princesses were repeating the chant that Marco had used as part of the distraction back in the tea room. 

Even Pony Head seemed impressed at the impact that the boy had on the students of St. Olga’s and Star couldn’t help but smile with pride as she said, “You really started something.”

What Marco had started also ended up being extremely helpful to their escape, as at his behest, the princesses broke out of their dormitories and followed them out of the school. 

While the other princesses fought the guards (who were revealed to be nothing but robots, thanks to a particularly brutal attack by one of the princesses), Star used her wand to blast the tower where the crystal was being held, causing the top of the tower to come crashing down…right towards the group of princesses and guards. Maybe that wasn’t the best idea in hindsight, but everyone was able to get out of the way before the tower hit the ground, so it all worked out. 

Now that the crystal preventing the scissors from working was gone, Star was quick to pull out her scissors and cut open a portal back to Earth. After everything she’d been through that day, she didn’t want to spend another minute in this place. 

However, as she turned to motion for her friends to follow her, she saw the group of princesses partying like St. Olga’s was now the best place to have fun in the universe. 

Despite this new development, Star was still eager to leave and pointed out to Pony Head that they could still make it to the Bounce Lounge to listen to their favorite set if they hurried. To her surprise, Pony Head rejected the offer, claiming that the Bounce Lounge had nothing on the current situation at St. Olga’s. 

At first, Star was disappointed, but after a bit of a talk, she was convinced that Pony Head would have a good time staying at St. Olga’s for the remainder of her birthday. 

The two of them exchanged and embrace, and as Pony Head flew off to join in the partying, Star grabbed Marco by the wrist and pulled him through the portal. 

Even if it seemed like things had changed at the school, Star still didn’t want to stay there any longer than was absolutely necessary; and when they emerged into the Diazes’ living room, she let out a sigh of relief, knowing she’d never have to go to that horrible place again. 

“Hey, Star?” Marco began, sounding somewhat ashamed. “I…I just wanted to say that I’m sorry about what I said back there, about liking Pony Head when she was like that. I have to admit, I still don’t really like her, but she is your friend, and besides, no one deserves to have to go through something like that. After what I went through, I’m pretty sure I’ll need to marathon all those prison-break movies to help me forgot all the images they tried shoving into my brain.” 

He chuckled a little at this last line, like he was trying to make a joke out of it, but Star knew he wasn’t lying when he said that – at least, not completely. He then announced that he was going to change out of the dress he was still wearing, and started to head upstairs. 

As he began to walk away, Star couldn’t help but think about how things had almost gone horribly wrong during their mission – and what that near-failure almost cost them; which got her thinking about how he still didn’t know the truth. 

Before she could stop herself, Star found herself calling Marco’s name to get his attention. 

He paused and turned towards her, obviously wondering what it was she wanted. The moment he looked at her, however, all of the fears she had regarding how he might react to her telling him the truth returned and the words caught in her throat. So, she swallowed them back and came up with another excuse instead. 

“I was just wondering if we could watch some of those movies you were talking about” she lied, putting on a smile to help with the illusion. “If you want, I can get us some snacks to eat while we’re watching.” 

For a second, Marco seemed a little confused by the sudden request, but he soon smiled slightly in return. “Sure, that sounds great. I’ve got most of them on DVD – I’ll go and grab them after I get changed, alright?” he asked, gaining a nod in return before continuing upstairs. 

Once he was gone, Star felt a twinge of guilt run through her as she thought about how she was still lying to him about this. 

Wanting to make the horrible feeling go away, she assured herself that she was going to tell him…when the time was right, and she didn’t feel like now was the right time. After all, they’d just gone through a pretty heavy experience – how could she give him what she knew was going to be life-changing news so soon after all that? 

Deciding to put the issue aside until another day, Star instead went to the kitchen to get the snacks she had promised to get for their impromptu movie marathon. She dug through the cabinets, trying to figure out what snacks to take out. 

Normally her and Marco’s go-to food for watching movies was nachos, but it seemed a little too late to make them – or, more accurately, ask Marco to make them – now. Plus, even she was a little tired after the day’s adventure, so she figured something they could just grab and eat would be best. 

In the end, she just decided on a couple of different snacks – some chips that were covered in a cheese powder that was supposed to make them taste like nachos, marshmallows, and something called trail mix that had all kinds of different things in it – and poured them into some bowls. 

She went back into the living room, carrying one of the bowls with her arms and the other two with magic, just in time to see Marco coming down the stairs, dressed in his usual jeans and hoodie, and carrying several DVD boxes in his arms. 

“Okay,” he began dropping the DVDs onto the table alongside the snack-bowls, making sure they were all facing upwards so Star could read the titles. “These are all the prison-break movies I own. Which one do you wanna watch first?”

Star studied the covers for a few moments, honestly paying more attention to the pictures than the actual titles (in her opinion, a picture could tell you a lot more about whether or not something was going to be any good than a title ever could). After looking at the covers for a few moments, Star picked up one and held it out to Marco, saying, “This one.” 

The boy took a quick glance at her choice, and stated it was a good one before putting it into the player and sitting down on the couch to watch the movie. 

Star was quick to join him, using her wand to turn off the lights, adding to the atmosphere of the room. 

And, so, for the next few hours, the two friends just sat on the couch, eating their snacks and watching the movies. Star had to admit, they didn’t seem quite as good as Marco made them sound, but they were still pretty fun to watch. 

Besides – and more importantly – it was always nice when the two of them could just hang out and have a good time together. That was something she never wanted to give up, no matter what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After reading some of your comments, I have decided to do something different regarding the "recap" aspect of the chapters. Not only will I try to have more of a balance of completely original and "extra" scenes in each chapter, but when it comes to the parts of each chapter that take place during episodes from the series, there are going to be some "rules", for lack of a better term.
> 
> These rules are basically that only episodes that I deem as having some importance to the events of the story will be covered in any degree of detail - others will have happened, but they'll just be mentioned or you'll just have to infer that they happened; and for the episodes that I do cover, I will do my best to try and mix them up a little, by adding things like new dialogue, as well as Star's internal thoughts.
> 
> And I am going to say that there is a reason why I included this episode: because Miss Heinous is going to come back in a later chapter, though I won't say why, besides that it will be different from her canon story.


	4. Chapter 4

“Star, are you certain you do not want to see a doctor? You have been sick like this for quite a while, and we are starting to get very worried about you” Rafael Diaz asked his young houseguest as she joined him and the rest of his family at the table for breakfast. 

His concern was evident in both his expression and his tone, as well as his words. It was also clear from the looks on their faces that both Marco and Angie felt the same way.

Star was quick to protest against the suggestion, waving her hands as though waving the suggestion away literally would help everyone forget about it. 

“Don’t worry, Mr. Diaz, I’m…I’m gonna be totally fine” she assured them, pausing slightly when she realized none of them would probably believe her if she said she was feeling fine and thus she needed to think of a way to make the statement true. 

It was technically true, after all…or, at least, she hoped it would be. She hadn’t really been able to get much information about what to expect with her pregnancy – outside of the very small amount of information provided by her _Mewberty and You_ book – since she couldn’t ask any questions without revealing her secret. But, she figured that the nausea had to go away at some point, so it wasn’t really a lie to say that she was going to be fine. 

The nagging voice in the back of her head piped up just then, reminding her that since she had no idea what to expect, she had no way of knowing if she was actually going to be fine. 

Star did her best to ignore it, as she had been doing for so long. Instead, she just focused her attention on the Diaz family. Seeing that they didn’t seem quite convinced by her assurance, she decided to say something else. 

“Besides,” she began, sitting down next to Marco and pouring herself a bowl of cereal, “I’m not even sure if the doctors here on Earth would be able to tell if anything was up with me, anyway.” 

Now that was definitely the truth – even though they looked pretty much the same, humans and Mewmen were still different, so there was a pretty good chance that any examinations a human doctor did on her wouldn’t show anything weird to begin with. 

“Then what about going to see a doctor on Mewni? They should be able to figure out what’s wrong – shouldn’t they?” Marco suggested. 

The suggestion took Star by surprise, and before she could stop herself, she spat out the cereal that had been in her mouth and let out a panicked, “No!” 

Almost immediately, she covered her mouth, shocked by her own outburst. Normally she wouldn’t have reacted anywhere near as strongly as that, especially not to what was a completely innocent suggestion; but this wasn’t exactly a normal situation, even if she was the only one in the room who was aware of that fact. It wasn’t even so much that she was worried about seeing a doctor back on Mewni – she was pretty sure that they wouldn’t be able to tell what was different about her, either; though, the fact that she didn’t know for sure did mean she still wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea. 

However, if she was going to see a doctor there, she knew her parents would be told about it, and that would most likely lead to them wanting to see her. And even if none of the doctors on Earth or Mewni would be able to tell what was different about her, Star knew there was at least a chance that her parents – especially her mother – would be able to…sense something, and might even be able to figure it out from that. 

Maybe she was making a lot of assumptions with this thought process, but she also knew she couldn’t really take the risk. There was just too much to lose if her fears ended up being proven right. 

Seeing that the Diazes also seemed to be taken aback by her reaction to Marco’s suggestion, Star felt herself blush from embarrassment and tried to fix the situation. 

“Sorry about that. I just meant…no, thanks. Like I said, I’m sure I’ll be feeling better pretty soon, and I really don’t want to go back home and bug my parents for something little like this” she insisted, hoping that her explanation would be good enough for the others at the table. 

For a few tense seconds, she was worried that they were going to protest, but thankfully it seemed like Mr. and Mrs. Diaz were satisfied with that answer and they went back to eating their breakfast. 

Marco, on the other hand, still looked concerned, though he didn’t actually say anything about it. Noticing the way he was looking at her, Star sighed. 

“Marco,” she began in a tone that was somewhere between assuring and slightly annoyed, “I’m gonna be fine. Promise.” 

He seemed skeptical, but finally sighed, seeming to figure out that she wasn’t going to budge on the issue. 

“Okay…but, promise that you’ll see someone if it gets any worse, okay?” he requested. He waited for her to nod in agreement before turning his attention back to his own breakfast. 

Despite still feeling a little irritated at how he was treating her, Star couldn’t help but allow the corners of her mouth to turn up into a small smile as her expression softened slightly. Yes, it was kind of irritating that he was being so protective, despite her trying to insist that there was nothing to worry about; but, at the same time, she couldn’t help but be touched by his concern. It was a way of showing that he cared, after all. 

And, she had to admit, this was a little different from the last time they’d had the discussion over him trying to act like a hero towards her, back during the Blood Moon Ball. This wasn’t dealing with monsters or demons or any other dangerous forces that could be dealt with easily enough with kicks and punches and magic spells – this was something entirely different. 

But, she did know that it was normal and was at least reasonably sure that she’d be feeling better before long, and so she figured there really wasn’t any need to worry. Or, at least, she wasn’t going to worry about this; not when there were much more important things to be concerned about: like making sure her secret stayed secret, and that she never succumbed to boredom like she almost did that one day before she went on that adventure to get the Banagic Wand from the Better Store. 

So far, both of those were going pretty well, though the boredom issue was occasionally harder to deal with. It never quite got bad enough that she was ever super bored or anything, but Star had to admit that there was some days when she almost hoped for a monster attack, just so she’d have something to do. 

Thankfully, there were usually enough exciting things going on – either by chance or by choice – that the more boring days usually weren’t that bad. At the very least, they didn’t happen often enough that they had too big of an impact on her. 

As for keeping her secret…well, that was easy enough, as she had expected it would be when she first discovered that she was pregnant almost three weeks ago. She didn’t look any different from normal, and the Diazes never seemed to question her magical bursts, so the only thing she had to explain away was her getting sick so often; and that was easy enough to claim as a simple stomach bug. 

Of course, now she had to wonder how long that excuse was going to hold up…

Star shook her head a little, trying to mentally derail her current train of that, and think about something else, something more fun. 

While she thought, she once again began to eat her cereal, figuring that maybe the sugar would help fuel whatever part of her brain helped her come up with ideas for how to entertain herself. 

Plus, despite the nausea and the “episode” she’d had a few minutes ago, she was kind of hungry, not having eaten anything since dinner the night before. She hadn’t even had any dessert that night, so that definitely didn’t help in regards to the hunger issue. 

Still, despite her being kind of hungry and wanting to try and finish fairly quickly so she could actually do whatever ideas she came up with, she tried not to eat too fast. Even before she had gotten pregnant, eating too much too quickly had often had the consequence of her getting sick not long after. That was something she’d learned after taking part in a kitten-donut eating contest during Pony Head’s birthday last year – one she didn’t even win, so it wasn’t like it was even worth making herself sick trying. 

Now that her stomach seemed to churn for no good reason, the last thing she wanted was to raise the chances of that happening by repeating a mistake from her past. 

She was still able to eat quickly enough that her cereal didn’t get too soggy before she was done, which she was definitely happy about; even Captain Blanche’s Sugar Seeds tasted kind of nasty when they were basically reduced to sugary mush in a bowl of milk, even to someone like Star who typically loved sugary foods like that. 

Unfortunately, even by the time she was done, she had yet to come up with an idea for something fun to do that day. Well, she had pretty much all day to think of something, so maybe an idea would come to her later. 

With that thought to help brighten her mood, Star picked up the bowl and began to drink the now pinkish, sugary milk that was sitting there – it almost tasted like strawberry milk, though not quite.

“We better get going before we miss the bus…again” Marco said, pushing his own empty breakfast plate away before getting up from the table.

Surprised by his statement, Star looked up from her bowl of milk and looked over at the clock that was hanging on the wall. To her slight amazement, it was actually close to the time that they would usually leave in order to catch the bus to school; she didn’t think it had taken her _that_ long to get ready for the day – or, probably more accurately, to finish up in the bathroom before eating breakfast, since actually getting ready for school only took a few minutes, even taking into account the magical bursts she experienced while doing so. 

Not wanting to waste anything, she quickly drained the rest of the milk from the bowl and placed it on the table. Once that was done, the princess practically jumped from her seat and followed her best friend as he stepped out the front door, each of them taking a moment to grab their respective backpacks before leaving. 

“I don’t get why you’re so worried about catching the bus” Star said to Marco as they walked to the bus stop. “Even if we missed it, you know I could just ask Cloudy to give us a ride, or come up with another spell if you didn’t want to fly. I mean, it worked before, didn’t it?” 

For a brief moment, Marco cringed, clearly remembering exactly how the last time Star had used her magic to get them to school on time had worked out. 

“Yeah, well, even if it got us to school, I’m not sure I’d really want to repeat that again…ever” he said, giving his best friend a firm look to make it clear he was not open to negotiating in regards to this statement. 

Star was going to try and argue, but ultimately decided against it and just gave a shrug in response, a silent way of saying, “Suit yourself.” 

Honestly, there were times when Marco really confused Star when it came to what he thought was “too dangerous”. He was pretty much always up for fighting Ludo and his monster goons whenever they came to try and steal the magic wand – which normally happened at least two or three times a week, but seemed to have tapered off somewhat since that one frog monster tried to steal it during her Mewnipendence Day reenactment – but apparently using a variation of her rabbit rocket blast spell was too much? 

Okay, so maybe she should have practiced using that version of the spell once or twice before trying it out, since she did end up having a bit of trouble controlling where they were going at such high speeds; but, they didn’t actually crash into anything, and they got to school on time. In fact, they had actually gotten to school before the bus that day, so Star really didn’t understand why Marco preferred taking the bus over using magic. 

Still, she wasn’t going to argue with him, especially since, while it wasn’t as fast or quite as fun, taking the bus to school really wasn’t that bad. 

Actually, sometimes it could be a lot of fun, depending on the day. 

It was always interesting to see what everyone was talking about in the morning, and sometimes she would even get to join the conversations, even if sometimes she wasn’t exactly sure what the other people were talking about. And that wasn’t even counting the times when the other students would play little games on the bus – those were the best; it was kind of like watching the games they played at the school, but on a smaller scale and using little wads of paper and pencils instead of actual balls. 

There was one time when she’d tried to join in on one of those games as well, but due to her experiencing a magic burst at the time, that really didn’t work out too well, and she kind of figured it wouldn’t be the best idea to try again – at least, not until she knew her magic was completely under her control again. 

Sadly, there weren’t any games being played on the bus today, but there was still plenty going on that made the trip to school kind of entertaining.

Besides hearing someone mention something about their class going on a field trip in a couple days (she would have to ask Marco exactly what a field trip was, but considering the word “trip” was involved, and how their classmates were talking, she figured it was probably something really fun, so she was already super excited at the idea), Marco actually talked to Jackie again. Sure, it was just to say “Hi”, but it was still really nice to see him starting to feel more comfortable around her. 

Star tried to convince him to ask Jackie to sit with him – even offering to move over to sit with someone else so there would be room for her – but he was quick to argue against it, claiming he didn’t want to go too fast. 

There was a part of her that wanted to point out that his problem was that he didn’t go fast enough, but she quickly realized that probably wasn’t going to be the best idea, and decided to drop the issue…for now. She was sure there would be plenty of chances for her to help Marco move forward with his plans to get Jackie to like him in the future, so she wasn’t too worried about how that plan was progressing a the moment.

Instead, she decided to join in on a conversation that Hope and Sabrina were having about some new musical group that they really liked. 

At first, the other girls seemed kind of shocked when she spoke up (with poor Sabrina even managing to bonk herself in the forehead with her pencil case, leaving a red mark where it had hit her), but they seemed to get used to it easily enough. At one point, Hope even let Star borrow her music player and her headphones so she could actually listen to some of the songs from the group, which Star thought was super nice of her. 

Star made a note in her mind to make sure to do something nice for Hope soon to make up for it, and then put on the headphones so she could listen to the music. 

And…it was pretty good, but definitely not the best music she’d heard. It was definitely nothing compared to Oskar’s music; but, then again, Star wasn’t sure if anything could really compare to Oskar’s music, so maybe that comparison wasn’t really fair to make. Plus, even if it wasn’t as good as Oskar’s music, it still had a catchy beat and it sounded like it’d be fun to dance to, so that made Star happy to listen to it. 

After listening to a few more songs, she gave the player back to Hope, thanking her before turning back around in her seat. 

They arrived at school a few minutes later, with everyone getting off and heading to their first period classes. 

As she walked to class with Marco, Star was still trying to think of both how to prevent herself from getting bored later on, as well as a way to thank Hope for letting her borrow her music player back on the bus. 

So far, nothing had come to mind, but she figured that maybe something would happen during her classes to help jumpstart whatever part of her brain actually came up with all of the fun ideas. And, if that didn’t work, then she would just ask Marco if he had any ideas, meaning it was a win-win situation no matter what.

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The first part of the day went by pretty smoothly…and by extension, it was kind of boring. 

Star managed to pay attention during the first few class periods, but by the time they got to math class with Miss Skullnick, she was close to falling asleep. 

It really didn’t help that math was probably the class that was the hardest to really make fun, since it was just numbers and symbols. At least with things like history, science, and English, there were things that made the classes somewhat fun. If nothing else, they were interesting enough that the Mewnian princess never had trouble keeping herself awake during them, even if she did sometimes drift off during the actual lessons. 

To her credit, she did (usually) pay attention during those classes, and her grades were…okay in those subjects. It was just hard to really pay attention sometimes when the teacher wasn’t talking about anything particularly interesting, and her mind was busy coming up with new and fun ideas for things like adventures. 

Star was pulled out of her thoughts when she suddenly felt the urge to yawn. 

Not wanting to draw too much attention to the fact that she was bored – though considering how more than half the class looked, it seemed clear that she was far from the only one who shared that opinion of the class – she went to cover her mouth as she felt the actual yawn approaching. 

Unfortunately, as she was yawning, her yawn was suddenly cut off by the feeling of something coming up from her stomach. 

Star barely managed to close her mouth in time to keep from getting sick right there in class, and she reluctantly swallowed the foul-tasting stuff that was in her mouth. She immediately regretted the decision, as the second she’d swallowed what was in her mouth, her stomach began to protest by churning violently. 

Knowing she wouldn’t be able to do anything about the impending wave, the young princess suddenly stood up from her seat and began to rush to the door. 

She had intended to just run out and go to the bathroom, where she could take care of things in relative privacy, and then just go back to class. In her mind, it was going to be a quick and easy solution to her current problem, and it would go off without any sort of issues. Sadly, it seemed like the universe had different plans for her today. 

Before she could even touch the doorknob, she was stopped by Miss Skullnick’s voice asking, “Where do you think you’re going?” 

Star froze, mentally cursing herself for not being faster. 

For a moment, she was torn between what to do, but she soon turned to face her teacher, trying her best to force down the feeling in her stomach, as well as trying to act like nothing was wrong. She wasn’t sure how well she was doing with the second task, but she was all too aware that the first one wasn’t going to last too much longer. She needed to get this over with, and fast. 

“I just…really, really need to use the bathroom. I’ll be right ba-“ Star began to explain, getting cut off by a hiccup that warned of what was coming. 

Without really thinking, she wrapped one arm around her stomach, doubling over slightly in an attempt to help soothe the sensation she was feeling. Miss Skullnick’s face seemed to soften slightly at this. 

“Star?” she asked, sounding genuinely concerned, “Are you feeling alright?” 

Trying her best to look and sound convincing, the girl replied, “Yeah, yeah, I’m totally fi-“ 

Once again, she got cut off in the middle of her sentence, her lie betrayed by her own body. After the feeling had passed, she hesitantly looked at the troll who was her teacher, hoping against all logic that maybe, just maybe, she would believe her, and would just let her rush to the bathroom like she had originally planned. 

The look on Miss Skullnick’s face made it clear that neither was going to happen, however, and it seemed like less than a second had passed before she turned her attention back to the rest of the class, who were watching the scene in front of them with expressions that varied from concerned to intrigued. 

“Mr. Diaz” Miss Skullnick said, causing Marco to look over at her, “Take the hall pass and take her to the nurse, then come back when you’re done.” 

Star wanted to argue that she didn’t need to see the nurse, and would be fine as long as she could use the bathroom, but she already knew it would be a losing battle, and decided not to say anything. Instead, she followed Marco out of the classroom and the two of them began to walk towards the office of the school’s nurse. 

“You know, this is why you should probably have seen a doctor by now” Marco said at one point as they walked. “It isn’t normal that you’ve been getting sick like this for so long…What if there really is something wrong with you?” 

Star was touched by her friend’s concern, but still insisted that she was sure that whatever was up with her wasn’t anything more than her feeling kind of sick.

He didn’t quite seem to believe her, but before he could say anything else, they reached the nurse’s office. 

Not wanting to give him the chance to say anything, Star quickly knocked on the door to get the attention of the elderly woman inside the office; she wasn’t exactly thrilled at having to go see the nurse, but she’d much rather deal with her than Marco at the moment. 

Within seconds, the door opened to reveal a kindly-looking lady with a wrinkled face and hair that was somewhere between grey and white in its coloring. She looked at the two teenagers in front of her, as though trying to assess which of them was actually there to see her. However, the answer to her unspoken question soon became clear as Star was once again hit by a wave of nausea, which showed clearly on her face. 

“Alright, now you come right inside, dear, and I’ll take good care of you” the nurse instructed Star, ushering the girl inside her office and leading her to what looked a bit like a couch. Once the alien teen was situation, the nurse turned her attention back to Marco, who was still hovering in the doorway. 

“Are you feeling sick, too?” she asked, raising an eyebrow to show that she was already skeptical of the idea. 

Marco shook his head, and opened his mouth, clearly ready to offer some sort of explanation, or possibly an argument. 

However, before he could actually say anything, the nurse spoke up instead: “Now, you just get right back on to class, young man. Don’t worry about your friend – she’ll be perfectly fine in here with me, and if anything comes up, I’ll make sure to call up your teacher and let you know.” 

Marco seemed hesitant to leave, but finally relented, telling Star that he hoped she’d feel better soon as he turned and went back to class. After he left, the nurse shut the door again and turned her attention back to the girl who was now reclining on the couch in her office. 

“Now…what seems to be the trouble?” she asked, taking a seat in her office chair, which she had rolled over to the couch. 

“I…I…I’m gonna be sick” Star replied, unable to keep herself from starting to retch. She knew that she wasn’t going to be able to hold this wave back, and was extremely grateful when the nurse handed her an empty wastebasket for her to get sick into. 

For what felt like an eternity, the poor girl emptied the contents of her stomach into the basket, while the nurse gently rubbed her back in a clear attempt to soothe her. After a few moments, her stomach was finally empty, and the churning feeling faded, though she still wouldn’t say she was feeling good after the experience. 

Star handed the basket to the nurse, who quickly emptied it and put it aside before returning to her place next to the young girl. As she did, she handed Star what looked like a plastic stick, instructing her to hold it under her tongue, without biting down, until the nurse took it out. 

Star was confused as to what the stick was supposed to do, but figured it was worth doing as she was instructed, and did just that. 

After about two minutes, the nurse held out her hand and Star handed her the stick. 

“Well, your temperature seems normal, which is good” she said, seeming to speak as much to herself as to the girl who was currently in her care. “Though, it still doesn’t explain what’s the matter with you.” 

Her expression softened as she looked Star in the eyes and said, “Now, Star, I’m going to ask you a few questions, and I need you to be completely honest with me when you answer. I promise that whatever you tell me will remain between us, but in return, you need to promise that everything you tell me is the absolute truth. Do you understand?” 

Star was worried about what kinds of questions she might get asked, but also realized that she probably didn’t really have a choice. Somewhat reluctantly, she nodded, figuring it was best to just get the whole thing over with as quickly as possible. 

“Alrighty, then” the nurse said, relaxing slightly in her seat. “Well, the first question should be an easy one: about how long have you been sick like this for?” 

“Uh, about three weeks, I guess? It’s close to that, at least.” 

The nurse nodded, seeming to be pleased with this answer. “Now, I know that you’re…different from a normal human girl, so I have to ask this: do you know what a menstrual cycle is, and does your…kind…experience something similar?” 

This question made Star’s heart begin to race as she started to realize what direction the nurse was headed towards. 

Not willing to trust herself to speak, she simply nodded in response, answering both questions with that one gesture. The nurse just nodded in response to her answer, which made Star feel even more anxious as she wondered what the next question would be. And she soon got the answer to her unspoken question: “Is there any chance that you could be pregnant?” 

All of a sudden, Star’s heart went from feeling like it was beating fast enough that she was sure it was going to pound its way out of her chest, to feeling like it had stopped completely. She even forgot how to breathe for half a second once the question reached her ears, which did not help with that particular feeling. 

She knew that she had promised to tell the nurse the truth, and that the old woman had promised not to tell anyone what she said…but she just couldn’t take the chance. 

“No, there’s not,” she said, sounding as confident in her statement as she could. “I haven’t done anything like…that…with anyone, so there is absolutely no way that I could be…you know…” 

For a few tense moments, Star worried that maybe the nurse wouldn’t believe her, though she made sure to not let that fear show on her face. 

Finally, the nurse seemed to accept the answer, standing up from her seat as she said, “Well, if you’re absolutely sure about that, then based on what I can see, you seem to have caught some type of stomach bug. I’m going to recommend you go home early today, and just try to take it easy for the rest of the day – just relax and try to eat small meals until your stomach’s settled.” 

While she spoke, she went to her desk and pulled out a small stack of forms, filling one of them out. Once she was finished, she walked over to Star and handed her the form she’d just filled out, instructing her to give it to Principal Skeeves before going home. Star nodded, but suddenly realized something. 

“But, what about –“ 

Her question was cut off by the nurse saying, “And don’t worry about Mr. Diaz; I’ll give Miss Skullnick a call and have her tell him that you’re heading home a little early today.” 

Star thanked the nurse for her help and stood up to leave, despite the nurse saying that she could stay in the office until she was feeling a little better. 

Even though she was still feeling a little weak from what she had been through a few minutes ago, she just didn’t feel comfortable staying in the nurse’s office any longer than was absolutely necessary. 

Maybe she was worried that the nurse would catch onto the fact that she was lying earlier, or maybe she just didn’t want to sit around in a room that kind of smelled like rubber and medicine – even she wasn’t exactly sure which it was. Whatever the reason was, Star didn’t stay long in the office for more than a moment once she was given permission to leave. 

She stopped by her locker to grab her backpack, and then stopped by Principal Skeeves’ office to give him the form the nurse had filled out. 

Once that was taken care of, she left the school grounds and began to walk to the Diaz household. She did think about using one of her spells to get home quicker, but since the weather was nice and she wanted the time to think, she ultimately decided to walk instead. 

Still, as she walked, she fiddled around with her wand, just because she was kind of bored. 

Of course, this ended up being a bit of a mistake, as while she walked, she noticed the tell-tale sign of a magic burst coming up and before she could let out of the wand, the magic shot out with whatever spell it had been charging. 

Thankfully, it didn’t turn out to be anything too major – just the raccoon from her rainbow raccoon rotation spell. However, without anything to rotate, the poor spell-creature just looked utterly baffled as to why he’d been summoned, looking around rapidly before turning his attention to Star and silently asking what he was supposed to be doing. 

“Sorry about that. It was a bit of an accident” Star explained, smiling sheepishly as she pointed the wand at the raccoon and sent him back inside. 

She was about to put the wand into her backpack – so she wouldn’t have to worry about experiencing any more busts – but when she was hit by a slight wave of nausea, she decided against it, at least for a moment. Before putting her wand away, she quickly summon a bottle of ginger ale, one of the only things she knew would be able to soothe her stomach when she was feeling like this. 

Once she had the bottle in her hand, she put her wand into her backpack and continued on her way, occasionally taking a sip of the ginger ale as she walked. 

After walking for a bit, she arrived to an empty house (or, almost empty, since she knew Glossaryck was technically there, most likely doing whatever it was he did inside her book; but since he didn’t really interact with her much, the house may as well have been empty), something that didn’t surprise her at all; everyone else who lived there was either working or at school, so it’d have been more concerning if someone else had been there when she arrived. 

She walked to the front door, first checking to see if it was unlocked, before quickly grabbing her wand and firing off a quick spell to undo the lock and allow the door to open. 

She stepped inside and decided to lay down on the couch. The nurse had told her to relax, but she didn’t say anything about her having to sleep, and if she had to sit around, she wanted to at least be able to have some form of entertainment. 

And so she laid down on the couch, with her bottle of ginger ale close by on the coffee table, and turned on the TV. 

Not really knowing what to expect – she was usually at school at this time, after all – Star simply flipped through the channels until she finally landed on something that seemed like it’d be fun to watch; or, at the very least, something that would keep her attention so she wouldn’t be bored sitting in the house alone until Marco got home from school. 

It seemed to be some kind of show about people in old times, and there were dragons, so she figured it would be pretty cool. 

Grabbing her wand from her backpack, she created a blanket so she could get more comfortable, and settled in to watch her show…And about five minutes later, she watched in horror as one of the characters got stabbed in the belly. 

Instantly regretting her decision to give the show a try, the Mewnian princess grabbed the remote and frantically began flipping through the channels again, desperate to find something “safer” than what she had just had the displeasure of watching. 

Thankfully, she soon found a channel where some cartoons were playing, and after a few moments of cautious viewing, she decided to make herself comfortable and continue watching. 

However, maybe she made herself a little too comfortable, as before she knew it, she had drifted off to sleep, despite the fact that she hadn’t noticed feeling tired in the slightest before she had lain down.

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When a slight shaking tried to force her into waking up, the Mewnian princess groaned and rolled over, trying to ignore it and continue with her slumber. She had no idea how long she’d been asleep for – all she knew was that she was comfortable and didn’t want to get up anytime soon. 

Then she heard Marco’s voice saying her name, followed in short order by the sound of something slamming into the wall. 

That was enough to convince her to wake up; and when she did, she was met with quite the sight: the coffee table was now galloping around the lower level of the house, occasionally bumping into the walls and the rest of the furniture. There were also what seemed to be literal dust bunnies scattered around the living room, occasionally darting underneath the furniture when the coffee table moved towards them. 

“Star!” Marco cried from where he had climbed onto a chair to avoid the coffee table. “Do you think you could give me a little help, here?” 

Now fully awake, Star took hold of her wand, undoing the spells (which, she quickly realized, were probably the results of her having magic bursts while sleeping), causing the dust bunnies to vanish, while the table once again went stiff and lifeless, falling to the ground with a muted thump. 

“Thanks” Marco said, grabbing the coffee table and dragging it back to where it belonged. Once everything was back in place, he turned to his friend and asked, “Are you feeling any better?” 

Star was silent for a moment, trying to figure out how to answer the question. After thinking it over, she finally smiled and nodded. 

“Yeah,” she said, stretching slightly to help loosen up after her unplanned nap, “I’m feeling a lot better, actually.” And that was the honest truth – while she was still slightly tired, the nausea she had been feeling earlier in the day seemed to have faded completely, something Star was extremely grateful for. 

Marco seemed to share her relief at this, if the look on his face and the way he seemed to relax at her response was any indication. He sat down on the couch, where he was quickly joined by his friend. The two simply sat for a few moments, with the only sound coming from the television, which had been left on while Star was napping, though now with the volume turned down significantly. 

It was Marco who broke the silence, asking if the nurse had known why Star had been feeling so sick earlier. 

For a brief moment, Star debated with herself how much to tell him about what had transpired while she was in the nurse’s office. Specifically, she wonder if she should tell him about the conversation the two of them had – namely the questions the nurse had asked her – or if she should just answer his question and leave it at that. Ultimately, she decided to do the latter. 

“Not really, but she said she thought it was just some kind of bug. She pretty much just told me to relax for a little while, and I’d be fine” she explained. 

Once she finished relaying the nurse’s theory and advice, the alien girl couldn’t help but give her friend a look that basically said “I told you so” – after all, she had said the same thing regarding her apparent illness, and now she had a professional who seemed to share her opinion. Sure, the nurse’s assumption was based on some missing information, but the fact still stood that she had agreed that whatever was apparently wrong with Star, it was nothing too serious. Maybe now she could actually convince Marco that she was going to be fine, and keep him from trying to insist that she go to Mewni and have a doctor look at her. 

“Oh, okay…” Marco said in response, his voice quiet as he looked down at the floor. 

Maybe he was embarrassed that he’d made such a big deal out of what was apparently nothing? Star really wasn’t sure why else he would be acting like this, so she figured that was the most likely explanation. 

Before she could even try to question him on his behavior, he looked at her with a small and said, “I am happy that it’s nothing serious, and that you’re feeling better. Though, just to be safe, maybe you should take her advice, and just take it easy for a bit?” 

Star returned the smile, happy to see that whatever had been bothering him before seemed to no longer be an issue. 

As for his suggestion, she was actually fine with agreeing to it, at least for the time being. While she did like their occasional trips to other dimensions, and there was a part of her that would miss being able to have all those amazing experiences with her best friend, she had to admit that if it were a choice between having fun and her physical health, she would have to choose the latter. 

Plus, she figured this little “break” wouldn’t last too long; even though she didn’t actually know what to expect, she figured that this part of her pregnancy couldn’t last too much longer, and once she no longer had to worry about getting sick all the time, the two friends could resume their adventures without any issue. 

There was technically the issue of Ludo and his monster lackeys, which could prevent Star from really being able to take things easy until she was feeling better – since she obviously couldn’t control whether they would show up or not.

However, she quickly decided it probably wasn’t anything to worry about. Not only could she and Marco take care of those monsters in about five minutes if they had to, but, honestly, they hadn’t been dealing with anyone coming after the wand in a while. The last time anyone had tried to take it had been when that one frog monster had tried to grab it on Mewnipendence Day; and they hadn’t had a full-out attack from the group of monsters since that time when Star had been convinced that fortune cookies could tell the future. So, it seemed kind of unlikely that they’d be dealing with a visit from Ludo or his monsters anytime soon, which meant Star could keep her promise of taking things easy for a few days.

“Yeah, sure, I can do that” she said, making herself comfortable on the couch in order to help show how sincere she was in that statement. 

Marco chuckled slightly at this before also making himself comfortable. 

The two of them turned their attention back to the television, and for several moments, neither said another word. 

“I know it’s kind of early,” Marco said suddenly, catching the attention of the girl sitting next to him, “but, I was thinking of maybe getting us a pizza from Emilio’s. If you wanted it, I mean.” 

It was at that moment that Star realized what day it was: Thursday; meaning that it was the day when the two of them had their weekly routine of watching their favorite shows while just relaxing together on the couch and eating pizza. 

It was pretty early to start with the whole thing – it was normally a thing they specifically did on Thursday nights, and it was barely into the afternoon – like Marco had said, but upon thinking about it for a minute, Star decided that really didn’t matter. Watching shows together would be just as much fun in the afternoon as it would be at night. 

Plus, now that she was no longer feeling sick, Star had to admit that she was starting to get really hungry, and just the idea of pizza was making her mouth water. 

Suddenly realizing that she hadn’t actually responded to his question, she quickly nodded to let him know that she was on board with the idea of starting their Friendship Thursday routine a little early that week. 

With that settled, Marco got up and went to get the pizza, while Star stayed home to get everything else ready. Which, honestly, just meant using her wand to fast-forward the TV so they could watch their shows early, rather than being stuck watching stuff they didn’t really have any interest in until nighttime.

It wasn’t very long before the two friends were once again sitting together on the couch, watching their favorite show and enjoying the pizza that Marco had bought. And Star definitely enjoyed it quite a bit – even more than she normally did, considering she ended up eating more than usual; sure, it was only a few extra slices compared to what she normally ate each week, but still…

”You must’ve been pretty hungry, huh?” Marco asked as Star finished off another slice of pizza. Almost immediately, his eyes widened and his cheeks turned red as he began to frantically apologize for the statement. 

“Yeah, I guess I am” Star agreed simply, being blunt in order to help make it clear that she didn’t take insult from what he had said. Why would she? It was a perfectly innocent thing to assume, and it was completely true besides that – maybe it was because she hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast that morning (and even that hadn’t been in her stomach for very long), or maybe it just had something to do with the fact that she was having a baby; but not only was she fairly hungry, but the pizza tasted especially delicious. 

Still, now that he said something, she did have to wonder if maybe she was hogging the pizza a little. 

“But, I’m done now, so you can have the rest if you want. Or we can put it in the fridge for your parents to eat when they get back” she suggested with a slight shrug of her shoulders. “Either one works for me.” 

“Thanks, but I’m pretty full, myself” Marco said, though he did grab one last piece before shutting the lid of the box. 

He stood from the couch, picking up the box as he did so, and then walked to the kitchen. Based on the sounds of the refrigerator door opening and closing, Star assumed that he had decided to just take her alternative option of what to do with their leftovers; not that she had thought he’d do anything different, since the only other option was to throw the rest of the pizza out, and they both knew there was no reason to waste quality food like that. 

Marco came back into the living room a few moments later, and sat back on the couch, where Star was waiting. 

The rest of the night went basically the same as the usual Friendship Thursday, though once they got to the point where they would usually watch their favorite show and eat pizza from Emilio’s, they had to compromise with their second favorite show that was on at the same time, and nachos instead. 

Overall, it was a pretty good night, and despite the less-than-stellar morning, a pretty good day in general, if you asked Star.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

To Star’s joy and amazement, over the next week or so, it seemed as though the nausea had began to fade considerably. It wasn’t gone completely, but it was nowhere near as bad as it had been in the time between when the symptoms of her pregnancy had first become apparent, and the present. She now had days where she would go pretty much the whole day without feeling like she was going to throw up, and even on days when she did feel sick, it wasn’t usually as often or as intense. 

However, that didn’t mean that things were back to normal. Not only was she still experiencing several magical bursts each day, but she also found herself feeling more drained than usual, and, most notably, it seemed like food now had quite the effect on the young princess.

Star found herself not only eating a little more than she used to, but also found that she often wanted to eat something very specific, and would be unable to fully satisfy her hunger until she got to eat it. 

Now, normally this wouldn’t be an issue, since she could just use her wand to summon whatever she wanted to eat at the moment, if she didn’t already have it – and often times, that was exactly what she did. Sure, she ran the risk of having a magical burst when trying to summon the food, but in her eyes, the reward was usual worth the risk; besides, if she didn’t take the risk to get the food she was craving, then she would just keep feeling hungry, so why not chance it?

Very recently, however, she had found herself craving a sandwich – specifically one from the Sandwich Dimension that, according to rumors, was actually hidden inside of some kind of dangerous creature that was native to that particular dimension. And, as Star had discovered the previous day when the craving had really started to distract her, she couldn’t just summon one of those sandwiches with her magic, and any sandwiches she tried creating just didn’t satisfy her, meaning she was still kind of hungry, and it was getting harder to ignore. 

So, she was going to have to go to the Sandwich Dimension and actually get one of those sandwiches for herself. 

Thankfully, that wouldn’t be an issue – now that she was feeling better, she and Marco could start going on their interdimensional adventures again (well, their adventures that just involved them, since they had technically already had one a few days ago, when she’d taken their class on a special field trip). And what better place to start than the Sandwich Dimension – someplace that she was sure would give them something exciting to do without being too crazy, plus they’d get the most delicious sandwiches ever out of it. 

As far as Star was concerned, there was no reason not to go there, and she figured that Marco would feel exactly the same way. However, when she brought it up to him while they were working on their homework (though it was more like he was working on his homework while she just doodled in the margins of the notebook paper she was supposed to be writing math equations down on), his reaction was not what she had expected. 

“Why would you want to go to a place that is fully of dangerous creatures…just for a sandwich?” he asked, looking and sounding as though he thought the very idea was completely insane.

And, okay, when he said it like that, Star did have to admit that the idea did seem a little strange…but she really needed one of those sandwiches, and even though she could go alone, she liked to have Marco by her side for these adventures. 

So, she decided that she would have to convince him that this little trip to the Sandwich Dimension would be worth it. 

First, she tried simply telling him about how delicious the sandwiches from that dimension were supposed to be, and how they were so rare that they couldn’t even be recreated with her magic. When that didn’t work, she resorted to Plan B…which was basically to try and beg him to come by telling him about how much fun it would be, and how much she had missed being able to go on adventures like this. 

“I know it’s only been like a week since the last time we did this” she told him, “But it feels like it’s been forever since we really got to have an adventure for just us. I…really miss doing that with you, Marco.” 

Marco’s expression softened slightly at this, and it looked like he was reconsidering his stance in the situation. After a few seconds of thinking, he finally gave an answer: “...Okay, let’s go. But, how about we just get one of those sandwiches and split it? I know you said they taste really good, but I’m really not that hungry and I don’t really want to go searching around for something that I’m not going to eat most of, anyway.” 

That sounded reasonable enough to Star, and she quickly agreed to his terms before pulling out her scissors and cutting open a portal to the Sandwich Dimension. The two friends stepped through, and were instantly transported to a dense jungle.

“Uh…Didn’t you say this was called the Sandwich Dimension?” Marco asked Star, looking around at their surroundings with a look of total bewilderment on his face. When the princess nodded in response, he added, “So, where are the sandwiches supposed to be?” 

“They’re hidden, Marco. We have to go and look for them – that’s the fun part of coming here, you know” Star replied as she started to walk off in order to search for one of the delicious sandwiches. 

Honestly, she didn’t understand how Marco would ask such a question when he should have probably realized the answer for himself. After all, how would it be an adventure, or fun in the slightest, if all they had to do was come through a portal and the sandwiches they were looking for were just sitting there, waiting for them? No, that would just be boring, even if it did mean that she’d get to eat the sandwich quicker. 

As she continued to walk, she heard footsteps behind her, which she figured meant that Marco had decided that her reasoning made sense and was just going to help her look. 

For about the next hour, the two of them searched for the sandwiches that the dimension was famous for. They searched inside of knotholes in trees, hidden inside of bushes, and even inside of what seemed to be holes buried in the ground by little animals – but each and every time, they came up empty-handed. 

After the seventh time of looking into a hole in hopes of finding a sandwich to eat and finding nothing, Star was starting to get frustrated. 

Sure, it was kind of fun to be searching like this, but she was also here for a reason – getting to eat a sandwich – and it was honestly getting kind of irritating that it was taking so long to actually achieve that goal. She then took notice of a cave, which sparked her interest. 

“Hey, Marco, look!” she called to her friend, who was currently peering into yet another hole in a tree. When she got his attention, she pointed at the cave excited and said, “Let’s go check it out. I’ve gotta really good feeling about this!” 

Without waiting for a response Star darted into the cave, where it was pretty dark, but still light enough to see what was inside. 

There were no sandwiches, but there was a weird-looking rock (or something), with what looked like smoke-stacks on top of it. 

Suddenly, a delicious, almost irresistible aroma caught Star’s attention, causing her mouth to water in anticipation as she tried to decipher the source. 

She discovered where the smell was coming from just as Marco caught up to her, and was standing at the entrance of the cave. Following her nose to the source of the delicious smell, Star found herself looking inside one of the holes in the rock and found, to her delight, one of the sandwiches they had been searching so long for. 

She briefly turned to Marco to tell him about her discovery, before reaching inside the hole and trying to grab the sandwich at the bottom. She heard Marco say something, but she was so focused on getting her food that she barely registered that he had spoken, much less what he actually said. That is, until he spoke again. 

“Are you sure this is safe?” 

Her arm still inside the whole, she glanced over at him. “No,” she said simply. “I said it was going to be fun – I never said anything about safe.” 

With that out of the way, she once again turned her attention back to the task at hand, suggesting that Marco try reaching into one of the other holes for a different sandwich. Her friend simply turned down the suggestion, which didn’t really bother Star – she just kept trying to get that particular sandwich; it was so close, she could almost taste it…

Suddenly, she felt something sucking on her arm, and before she knew it, her entire upper body was pulled into the hole she’d been reaching inside. The bad news was: now she was definitely stuck in a fairly uncomfortable position; the good news was that she could now actually reach the sandwich that she’d spent the past few minutes trying to obtain. It was a pretty fair trade, honestly.

She quickly snatched up the sandwich, when she suddenly felt something pulling on her legs. That something was soon revealed to be Marco, and he managed to free her, at which point the Mewnian princess happily showed off her prize to her friend. 

The mood of the moment didn’t last long, however, as the two of them soon discovered that what they had assumed was a weird rock…wasn’t a rock, and it was apparently really protective of its sandwich. 

They barely had a moment to register the situation before they were chased out of the cave by the Sandwich Monster, who charged after them even as they jumped from the cliff in order to escape. 

At one point, they got tangled in some vines, with the sandwich Star had taken with her falling – still looking absolutely perfect and delicious – a few feet in front of her. 

There was a part of her brain that was telling her to just leave the sandwich and come back for another one later, but the much louder part of her was entirely focused on satisfying her craving, which seemed all the more intense now that she was so close to getting what she wanted. And, of course, she listened to that louder part, and continued to try and grab the sandwich, even as she heard the monster approaching and Marco’s panicked cries behind her. 

She was just able to grab the sandwich when she felt Marco grab her from behind and pull her through a portal he’d apparently managed to cut with her scissors while she was struggling against the vines she’d been tangled in. 

Unfortunately, she wasn’t quite quick enough, and most of the sandwich ended up getting crushed by the monster, much to her disappointment once she made that discovery upon falling out of the portal and into the upstairs area of the Diaz house. 

She angrily pointed this out to Marco, who responded, in an equally angry tone, that getting a piece of food was not worth risking their lives over. As he spoke, he smacked the bit of sandwich out of her hands, where it splattered against and stuck to the wall. Marco looked at the food with disgust before announcing that he was going to his room. 

“I hate it when you act like this” Star said, looking at him with a very angry expression. “It makes me wonder why we’re even friends.” 

Instantly, Marco’s expression changed from being angry to looking genuinely hurt by her comment, and for a moment, Star wanted to take it back – at least that last part. But, she was still so angry and frustrated, and so she just decided to scrape the remains of the sandwich off the wall, and head into her own room. 

It was still fairly early, but she really couldn’t deal with Marco at the moment, and she knew that the one place he definitely wouldn’t bother her was her bedroom. Well, that or the bathroom, but she figured the bedroom would be a lot more comfortable. 

She put the sandwich on her dresser before flopping onto her bed, where she grabbed her pillow and began to scream into it. 

Once she was done, she simply laid in bed and stared at the ceiling, until she ended up falling asleep shortly after. Sometime later, she was awoken by the sound of her stomach growling, reminding her of the fact that she had never actually eaten that sandwich that she’d gone through all that trouble to get. 

Thankfully, that was very easy to remedy.

She went over to her dresser and picked up the sandwich that she’d left there, beginning to eat it. It probably wasn’t quite as good as it would have been when it was fresh, but it still tasted incredible, and as soon as she swallowed what she’d bitten off, the hunger she’d been feeling for most of the day faded. 

However, she was distracted somewhat from her enjoyment when she saw the picture of herself and Marco that she kept wedged into the frame of her mirror drift down to land on the dresser. 

Looking at the two of them being so happy together, and then thinking about what she had said to him before, made Star feel awful. 

How could she have said something that awful to her best friend, even if she was kind of angry at him? She had to apologize, and try to make it up to him, she decided immediately, grabbing the rest of the sandwich and heading towards Marco’s room. 

To her slight confusion there was a sign saying “Keep Out” on his door. Maybe he was more angry that she thought? 

Star tried her best to ignore that, and focus instead of her apology. She knocked on the door, hoping that he was both awake and that the noise would get his attention. 

“Marco? I’m sorry – I was acting like a jerk. It’s just…I really wanted to try one of these sandwiches and I guess I wasn’t really thinking about anything else.” When there was no response to her apology, she tried another tactic to try and receive forgiveness: bribery. “Do you wanna try some of the sandwich? I know it’s kind of smashed up and dirty, but it’s still delicious!” 

Yet again, there was no answer, not even some kind of muffled complaint about trying to sleep. Confused, Star slowly opened the door…only to find Marco’s room completely empty, with no sign of the boy at all. 

Now even more confused, Star went to ask Marco’s parents if they had any idea where he was. 

They said they didn’t actually know, but suggested Star call his cell phone. Star took their advice, and was soon led to the source of the ringing – which was back in Marco’s room. Unfortunately, rather than finding her friend, Star discovered the giant fly monster who worked for Ludo waiting for her. 

“If you ever want to see the boy again, bring the wand to Ludo’s castle tonight. And come alone” the fly monster said before flying off through the window. 

Star wanted to just grab her scissors and go after him, but was stopped when Mr. and Mrs. Diaz showed up, wanting to know what was going on. 

Knowing that she couldn’t just leave them wondering, Star – somewhat reluctantly – told them what she knew: that Marco had been captured by one of their enemies from Mewni, and she had to go and rescue him. She had thought that would be all, and was about to leave to confront Ludo and get Marco back. But, before she could do that, she was stopped by Mr. Diaz. 

“We must call the police right away,” he said, racing to the telephone, where he began to dial the number. 

“That isn’t going to help” Star said bluntly. She knew that the police on Earth wouldn’t be able to understand what was going on, and even if they did, there was nothing they could do to help. 

Despite her protest, Mr. Diaz continued to talk to the police, and both he and his wife basically prevented her from just leaving by letting her know that she was the only one who could tell the officer what was happening.

Even though she wanted to just go and save Marco herself, Star decided to both make the Diazes happy by taking part in their plan…and also prove that she was right and the police wouldn’t be able to help. And, of course, she was entirely right – besides saying they’d send bloodhounds after Marco if he wasn’t back by morning, he did absolutely nothing helpful; in fact, all he really did was act really condescending towards Star when she tried to explain about Ludo and her magic wand. 

Once he was gone, Star simply decided to put her original plan into action, only taking a second to correct Marco’s parents when they tried to tell her that this wasn’t her fault. She knew it was, and that was why she had to be the one to fix it – even if the message didn’t specify that she come alone.

Without another word, she cut open a portal and stepped through it to the area of Mewni where Ludo’s castle was located. 

She had considered transporting herself straight to Ludo’s castle, but then thought about the possibility that maybe he was keeping Marco somewhere else; and since her main mission was to find her friend, she had to give herself a chance to see if she could find him. 

With her mind focused on the goal, she began to run towards the castle, completely ignoring almost everything around her…until she saw Ludo out of the corner of her eye, with a wriggling sack next to him as he spoke to the frog monster that worked for him. 

“Marco!” she gasped as the realization hit her. Without another thought, she pulled out her wand and zapped both Ludo and the frog monster away from the sack, which she quickly opened. However, rather than finding her kidnapped friend, Star instead discovered that the sack was full of…

”Tadpoles?” she asked, incredulously as she stared at the baby monsters and they stared back. She couldn’t believe she was wasting time with this when she had to find Marco. 

 

But, she suddenly realized, maybe this wouldn’t be a complete waste of time. She turned her wand back to Ludo, charging it up for yet another blast, and demanded, “Where is Marco?” 

Even when Ludo insisted that he had no idea who Marco was, Star kept her wand trained on him, only moving to target the frog monster when he spoke, explaining who Marco was. Once again, Ludo claimed ignorance, saying he didn’t know where Marco was. Star didn’t believe him in the slightest – how could he not know?

“Then why did you summon me to your castle?” she demanded, only for her question to be answered by the frog monster (what was his name? Buff Frog? Whatever, it was probably close enough, and Star had more important things to worry about at the moment), who simply informed her that the castle no longer belonged to Ludo; and Ludo himself confirmed it by tearfully saying that the castle now belonged to someone called Toffee. 

“I have no idea who that is!” Star yelled, her frustration now reaching the boiling point as she came to realize that this really was wasting valuable time. 

Now that she knew Marco was definitely inside the castle, she started heading back in that direction, only to have Ludo start following after her. However, she didn’t have time to deal with the little monster, and so simply ignored him as she made her way to the castle, only acknowledging him when he made it impossible to do otherwise. 

After a brief discussion about figuring out how to find Toffee, and a warning from Buff Frog about how Toffee was different from Ludo, the three charged inside to confront their apparently shared adversary. 

To Star’s slight surprise, Buff Frog and Ludo kept their word and led her to a room where a lizard monster in a suit (that was presumably Toffee) was sitting at the end of a long table. But, more importantly to Star, was the fact that she could see Marco in the room as well, trapped inside of what looked like a glass box, surrounded by monsters. 

“Here’s the plan” she said to her temporary allies. “We go in on the count of one.” 

Buff Frog began to protest, but Star ignored him and rushed into the room, blasting Toffee in the arm as he began to greet her. She was not in the mood for talking – she had more important things to worry about. 

Once the lizard monster was on the ground, Star focused her attention on trying to free Marco, firing off the most destructive spells she could think of, in the hopes that something would break the glass of her friend’s prison. 

After her attempts failed, the princess decided that enough was enough. She froze the monsters who had been trying to fight her in place and held up her wand as she faced the cage. 

She wasn’t thinking of a specific spell, only doing her best to summon as much energy as she could into the wand; and based on the energy she could feel flowing through her, she was successful in that goal. Once she felt enough of the energy had charged, she unleashed it, blasting the cage and causing a fairly large explosion. 

Almost immediately after the smoke had cleared, Star became aware of two sensations in her body: a slight tingling feeling in her cheeks, and a sharp pain that cut through her belly, leaving her almost breathless for a moment. Gasping slightly, she clutched at her stomach…but she quickly ignored her pain when she realized that her blast had worked, and the glass prison was shattered. 

“Marco!” Star cried happily as she rushed to help him out. Unfortunately, she was too late, and before she could help her friend out, the glass reformed around him, trapping him once again. 

Star’s disappointment soon turned to horror as the cage slowly began to lower towards the ground, forcing Marco down as well. Panicked, Star tried to stop the cage from lowering, before preparing to try and repeat the blast from before. 

“That’s not going to work again,” Toffee informed her as he sat back in his chair, the arm that Star had blasted off earlier now completely grown back. “That crystal’s twice as strong now.” 

Star knew she couldn’t take the chance of the spell not working, not when it was clear the cage wasn’t going to stop lowering. So, she did the only other thing she could think of to save her friend: she jumped onto the table and dropped her wand on the plate that Toffee had placed in front of him, demanding that he release Marco. 

Ludo appeared just then and tried to grab the wand from the plate, only to be stopped when the giant chicken monster grabbed him with its beak. 

“Do you think I’m like Ludo?” Toffee asked, briefly looking away from Star to tell the chicken monster to swallow the struggling Ludo. “I don’t want your wand – I want you to destroy it.” 

After getting over her initial shock, Star protested to the demand, not because she wouldn’t destroy the wand, but because she didn’t know how to do it. 

In an almost scarily calm voice, Toffee corrected her, saying she did know how – it was the first spell her mother had ever taught her. 

“The Whispering Spell” Star said in a quiet voice as she realized what he was talking about. Toffee confirmed her suspicions, and reminded her that the clock was ticking. 

Star took one last look at Marco, who was now lying on the ground with the glass ceiling pressed firmly against him, and then looked back at her wand. 

“…I’m sorry…” she said, hanging her head as she began to whisper the spell into the wand. With every word she whispered, she could feel the magical tie between herself and the wand beginning to severe as the device slowly began to break down. 

Once she knew it was finished, she placed the wand back on the table, her eyes filling with tears at what she had just done. The wand opened up, revealing a tiny unicorn ghost, which darted around Star’s head before whispering into her ear, making Star gasp and the tears start flowing from her eyes. 

She wiped away her tears and demanded that Toffee let Marco go once again. 

Thankfully, this time the lizard monster agreed to her terms and pressed the button on his remote to raise the prison and open the door. 

However, before Marco could get out, Star shoved him back inside, diving in after him. She took a quick second to warn Buff Frog to run, before closing the door to the prison. 

Once he recovered from being knocked to the ground, Marco complained about the treatment, but Star just ignored him. 

“It’s not over yet” she said knowingly as she watched the scene before her. 

Her wand began to shake violently and glow as Toffee calmly spoke to the other monsters, all of whom looked confused…until the wand began to crack, at which point confusion turned to fear and all the monsters, sans Toffee himself, began to rush towards the exit. Seconds later, the entire castle was consumed by a massive explosion, the aftermath of which left the crystal prison that the two friends were inside completely dark as dust absolutely coated the outside. 

Once they deemed it safe to look around, Star opened up the door and the two looked around at the remains of the castle…which wasn’t really much. 

They also watched – with some degree of disgust – as Ludo came out of an egg that the chicken monster had laid. And, after a brief conversation where Ludo ended up reminding Star of what she had just lost, Star finally decided she had enough of the little monster and opened up a random portal which she shoved him through before closing. 

All of a sudden, a meteor came crashing down from the sky, creating a crater nearby. 

Star and Marco went over to investigate, only to find that the meteor was only the remains of Star’s wand, still completely dead and useless. 

The girl and her friend exchanged a look for a brief moment, before Marco opened up his arms in a silent offer for a hug, something Star was more than willing to take him up on. 

As they hugged, Star thought about her current situation. Once her parents found out that she’d destroyed the wand (even if it was for a good cause), she was sure they’d be furious; maybe even angry enough to kick her out of the kingdom permanently. And, if they did that, then the only place she could really go was back to Earth, with Marco and his family. With that in mind, she made a decision, albeit one that was very difficult. 

“Marco…” she began, swallowing to help clear her throat and trying to keep her voice from shaking. “There’s…there’s something I have to tell you. Something really important.” 

Her friend ended the hug and looked at her with an expression that combined concern and curiosity. 

Unable to keep herself from shaking a little – she was still afraid of how he would react when she told him, but now she knew she basically had nothing to lose – Star began to speak, “I’m –“. 

Before she could get the word out, another, completely unfamiliar voice sounded, catching the attention of both of the friends and distracting them from their current situation, at least for the moment. 

Confused, Star looked down to see a tiny horse walking between her and Marco, heading towards the crater where the wand was laying. The two watched in silence as the horse attached a horn to its head and climbed inside of the wand, which sunk into the ground. 

Suddenly a bunch of crystals sprouted out of the ground and one opened up to reveal something amazing: a brand new wand, with a different design from the original, the most notable aspect being that the star-shaped crystal now appeared to be broken in half. 

Star and Marco were so busy admiring her new wand, that they barely noticed anything around them until the thunder sounded, at which point they looked up to discover they were quickly surrounded by several nights – three of which quickly revealed themselves to be Marco’s parents and Star’s father. 

After that, everything went so quickly that it felt like it was all happening in a blur. The group returned to Butterfly Castle, where Star was lectured by her mother…but, to her immense surprise and confusion, when she revealed that the wand had been broken and replaced, her parents didn’t get angry with her. Well, that was a lie – her mother did say she was angry, but she also said that she was more happy that Star was safe, and there was no mention of a punishment of any sort, much less a suggestion of being cut out of the family or banished. 

In fact, the only thing her mother really had to say about what happened to the wand was that she wanted to have it cleaned, something Star was perfectly fine with.

That had been a couple of hours ago, and now Star sat alone in her room, sitting on her bed and looking at her new wand as she thought. After everything that had happened, that was all she could really do – she was too tired for anything else. 

A sudden knock on her door distracted her from the thoughts that were swirling in her head. 

“Come in,” she said to whoever was on the other side. The door opened to reveal Marco, who stepped inside the room and walked over to her. For a second, he just stood in front of Star before, with some hesitation, sitting down on the bed next to her. 

“Are you doing okay?” he asked, looking at her with concern evident on his face. 

Star smiled slightly and responded with, “I’m pretty sure I should be asking you that question.” 

The two friends shared a brief laugh before sobering slightly and claiming that they were fine – or, as fine as they could be, given the current situation. 

“So…what did you need to tell me?” Marco asked suddenly. 

For a moment, Star was confused as to what he meant, then she remembered what she had started to say before the little unicorn had showed up and helped create her new wand – how she had been about to tell him the truth. She still wanted to tell him, despite the fact her fears about her parents’ reaction to her wand being broken had not come to pass. 

“I’m…really sorry about what I said, about wondering why we were even friends” she replied, mentally kicking herself as the words spilled out, almost of their own accord. She was going to tell him, she really was. But now that she didn’t have her safety net of knowing there was nothing to lose, the fear gripped her tight and refused to let the words out. “You were right – it wasn’t worth risking out lives just to get a stupid sandwich, and I shouldn’t have gotten so angry when you said that. I just…I’m so, so sorry for all of that.” 

Rather than say anything in response to what Star had just said, Marco simply held open his arms as a silent invitation; but, it got the message of forgiveness across perfectly. Star gladly accepted the hug, and the two of them just stayed like that for a couple seconds, before Marco finally broke the embrace to say he was going to bed. 

Star couldn’t say she blamed him – she was feeling pretty exhausted herself after what they’d been through that day – and wished him goodnight as he left her room.

Shortly after, she tucked her new wand under her pillow and went to sleep herself, her thoughts drifting back to questions of what was going to happen now that she had this new wand, as she slipped into slumber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case any of you were wondering: that pain that Star feels in her stomach after she does her really powerful attack that destroys the prison Toffee was keeping Marco in? Yeah, that is going to be important to remember in the next chapter...but I'm not going to tell you why. Let's just say it has something to do with Star's plotline in _My New Wand!_.
> 
> Also, sorry about having another fake-out with Star almost telling Marco the truth, but upon thinking about the situation, it just felt right. I will promise that this will be the last time I do a fake-out like that. And, in case anyone was wondering...Marco is not going to find out the truth for quite a while. Though I will spoil that part somewhat by confirming that he does find out via Star telling him, but as for how...well, you'll just have to wait and see.


	5. Chapter 5

Morning came a little too early for Star, who was still feeling kind of drained from the events of the previous day. She didn’t even have to look at the clock to know it was too early to get up; she could tell that much from how much her body and mind both were protesting as she awoke. 

In fact, with how much it seemed like every part of her was against waking up so early, she had to wonder exactly why she wasn’t still asleep. 

The answer came almost immediately after she asked herself the question. Her stomach growled, and rather loudly at that, serving as a reminder to Star that she hadn’t eaten anything since that bit of sandwich, and even that hadn’t been more than a bite. 

So, it made a lot of sense that she was hungry, and apparently when it came to hunger or sleep, hunger was going to win the battle. 

“Well, that’s easy enough to fix” Star muttered to herself as she reached under her pillow for her wand.

Upon pulling the device out, however, she was somewhat startled when she saw it…before the memory of what happened back at Ludo’s…Toffee’s…whoever’s castle came back to her. 

Momentarily forgetting why she had taken out the wand, the princess began to examine it. In many ways, it was actually pretty similar to her old one, just with a few little changes that helped make it feel new. In fact that only really big change was the crystal that was set into the front of the bell. It was still a star, like before, but now it looked like it had been broken in half. Star ran her fingers over the crystal thoughtfully. 

It seemed so weird to have a new wand…though she guessed she should be thankful for it, considering she had no idea where she would be if she hadn’t gotten this wand to replace her old one. Her stomach gurgled loudly again, snapping her out of her thoughts. 

“Oh, right, sorry” she said, quickly raising her wand and preparing to say a spell to summon something to eat. 

Unfortunately for her, before she could do the spell, the crystal of the wand began to glow, followed almost immediately by a blast of energy that hit her treasure chest. 

The lid of the chest suddenly began to open and close over and over again, going slowly at first but picking up speed each time it closed, until it was flapping up and down almost too fast to see. 

Worried that the noise would wake Marco and his parents, Star frantically shot another spell to undo the last one, making the lid slam shut one last time before it stayed still.

“Let’s try this again” Star said to herself, once again readying her wand for a summoning spell. Much to her immense irritation, the only thing that happened was another magical burst, this time resulting in her wand firing off a ton of bubbles, which quickly flooded her room, until it looked like her bed was sitting in a sea of bubbles. 

Letting out a frustrated noise, Star vanished away the bubbles (though she saved a couple so she could just pop them herself – it was very fun and kind of calming) and flopped down on her bed once again. She lifted herself up slightly and glared at her stomach. 

“Hey” she said, poking herself in the stomach gently, “If you want me to eat, you should let me get some food.” 

As if in response, the crystal of her wand began to glow once again. However, this time, Star let it drop onto the bed before whatever spell it was about to shoot off could come out. Realizing that she wasn’t going to win this particular battle, she sat up and got out of bed.

“Okay, fine, I’ll get some food the ‘normal’ way” she said, unable to keep her tone from sounding frustrated as she once again addressed her stomach. In the back of her mind, she did think about how talking “to” the baby like she was probably wasn’t the smartest thing, but not only was she just really starting to get fed up with being denied the food she wanted, but she also figured that since she was alone and it was still pretty early, there would be no one to hear her anyway. 

Leaving her wand on the bed – so she wouldn’t have to worry about the possibility of her having yet another magic burst on the way – she left her room and snuck downstairs to the kitchen in search of something to quiet her growling stomach. 

There was a part of her that wanted something like pancakes or waffles, but she ultimately decided it would be best to just get something quick for now. After all, the sooner she got something to eat, the better – and she could just have something else later if she was still hungry. So, instead she went into the cabinet and pulled out a couple of toaster pastries, which she put in the toaster to warm up. 

The instant they popped up, she threw them onto a plate and ran back upstairs to her room to eat. It didn’t take her long to finish the snack, which thankfully seemed to satisfy the hunger she had been feeling. 

However, now that she had satisfied the hunger, she now had to deal with the boredom, since now she was wide awake and it was still a little too early to really do anything fun. And even if she could think of something to do, it was never as much fun to do those things by herself, but she didn’t want to wake Marco up just because she was bored. He was probably just as exhausted from what had happened with the castle and her wand as she had been, if not more so, since he was the one who’d gotten dragged to the monster castle in the first place. 

Star briefly considered just trying to go back to sleep, but decided against it almost immediately. Even though there was nowhere near as much sugar in the pastries she’d eaten as in her normal bowls of cereal, she was still pretty sure there was enough that she’d have too much energy to sleep soon enough. 

So, instead she just laid back on her bed, fiddling around with her wand as she waited for either an idea to come to her, or for Marco to get up so they could do something together. 

At one point, as she was holding her wand over her head, the crystal began to glow and hum softly, before suddenly shooting off a blast of magical energy. Unable to react quickly enough to brace herself, Star found herself losing hold of the wand, which ended up bonking her on the forehead. 

The princess sat up suddenly, rubbing her forehead where the wand had hit her. It didn’t really hurt much, but it did sting a little, and she knew there was going to be a bruise there, if only a little one. 

Star couldn’t help but let out a frustrated sigh. It was times like this where she almost wished she could tell someone her secret; being able to vent her frustrations sounded awfully good right about now. 

Suddenly, she remembered something – her journal. 

She got out of the bed and walked over to her secrets closet, where she had stashed away everything that she wanted to forget about, or just keep hidden from everyone else, and opened the door. Her journal was kept on a self near the door, so she thankfully didn’t have to look too hard for it – even she wasn’t sure she could navigate the closet without running the risk of getting lost in all the stuff that was thrown in there.

She grabbed the journal and carried it back to her bed, closing the closet door behind her. 

After taking a moment to be sure that things were quiet, Star sat down on the bed and placed her journal in her lap, opening the book and flipping through its pages. She briefly glanced the title of the most recent “chapter” – the one where she talked about how she felt about Marco. 

Star felt her cheeks warm up slightly as she thought about what she had written in that part of her journal and she began flipping the pages even faster, trying to avoid actually reading any of those particular entries. 

Finally, she landed on a blank page. 

Grabbing her wand, she unscrewed the bell, removing it to reveal the hidden pen that lay inside, tip overflowing just slightly with what looked like golden ink. Star shook the pen slightly to get the ink to settle, and began to write. 

_I had no idea having a baby was going to be this hard. And the worst part is, I don’t even actually have a baby yet! I knew that it wasn’t going to be easy, but I wish something would have warned me about how bad it was going to get._

_I can’t even tell if this baby wants to let me eat, or not. First, they keep making me sick so either I can’t eat anything, or I eat and then just throw it up. And now, they make me super hungry, but then make me have these weird cravings that keep me hungry until I eat them. Or they just stop me from getting some food the easy way by making my wand fire off random spells when I’m just trying to get something to eat!_

_Okay, I know it’s not really the baby’s fault. I’m not even sure if the baby’s big enough for anything to really be their fault, actually. But I’m just really tired and really frustrated right now._

_I’m really hoping that these magic bursts and the cravings and all that go away soon, or at least get a little less annoying._

_And I kind of wish things could go back to normal, but I guess that isn’t going to happen._

_It’s really weird (and kind of scary) to think about how I’m going to have a baby pretty soon…_

Star suddenly slammed the journal shut, abruptly ending the thoughts that she had just been writing about. 

Her reaction was partly because she thought she heard someone walking outside her room…and partly because she just wanted to stop thinking about it. 

She was honestly doing her best to not think about the fact that she was actually going to have a baby once this was all over; it was hard enough to handle keeping the secret, without having that to worry her on top of that. 

Sure, she would have to think about it eventually, but that was a long ways off, practically an eternity from now. So she figured there was no need to worry about it until then; especially not when she already had enough to keep her mind occupied. 

She sat on the bed in silence for a few moments, until she decided that the sound outside her room was probably nothing – probably just Marco using the bathroom or something. 

After a few more seconds of waiting, Star once again carried her journal back to her secrets’ closet, where she placed in back on its shelf before returning to her bed. 

She still wasn’t tired, but she had conceded that she wouldn’t actually be able to do anything for at least a couple of hours; so, despite feeling basically wide awake, she put her wand back underneath her pillow and laid down, closing her eyes and doing her best to think of relaxing thoughts.

Maybe she could at least take a short nap; at least then she wouldn’t have to just stay awake and be bored for so long. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

A few hours had passed, and now both Star and Marco were awake. They were also alone, as Marco’s parents had gone out shopping for some groceries. 

Marco had decided to take a shower, so Star was left to think about what they could do once he got out. She didn’t have much luck with that, but when she spotted Marco’s laptop, an idea sparked in her head. 

Not too long ago, she had seen a video and Marco had explained to her that the people making the video were doing something called a “live chat” – where they could tape themselves and let people watch them over the internet…as they were making the video. 

The idea had seemed so interesting to Star that she had insisted Marco show her how to do it. He had complied, but deleted the video as soon as it was done. Not that she had really minded – it wasn’t really anything that interesting, just something to help her learn how to use that function of the laptop. 

Now, however, she had something very interesting to talk about, and a story she knew people would love to hear. She glanced the wand in her hand and smiled. 

At first, she considered doing the video in her room, but decided against it almost as quickly as the idea came to her. The sound of the shower caught her attention and gave her an idea: why not do the video in the bathroom? She was sure she could make it fun, plus then she could let Marco in on the fun as quickly as possible. 

For a moment, she considered asking Marco what he thought of the idea, but then realized it would probably be more fun if she made it a surprise for him. So, she quietly opened the bathroom door and stepped inside, closing the door behind her. 

After placing her wand inside one of the drawers that were under the sink – she was going to pull it out to show everyone who watched the video, since she knew that’d be the best way to reveal the new design to everyone – she hopped onto the counter and opened up the laptop. 

She fiddled around with the thing for a few seconds (she had to admit, she didn’t always pay attention when Marco had been teaching her how to make the live videos…), until finally she was pretty sure she got it to work. She wasn’t sure if anyone would be watching, but she knew it would be fun to just make the video in the first place.

“Guess who?” she asked the screen, even though she knew there wasn’t going to be any kind of answer.  
Realizing that the steam coming from the shower was making the screen foggy, Star frowned slightly and wiped it off before continuing with her video. 

She introduced herself, and then began to tell the story of what had happened with her wand. “Well, first, Marco got kidnapped by some really evil monsters and I had to go and rescue him. I blew up a ton of stuff, including my wand. And I was super bummed, because I thought that meant I wasn’t ever gonna be able to do magic ever again. But, then I got my new -!” 

At this moment, she opened up the drawer and reached inside, pulling out what she thought was her wand and showing it off to the camera. Once she realized that she’d actually grabbed a hairbrush instead, she excused herself to the camera and reached back into the drawer once again. 

She held up the actual wand this time, giving the same introduction.

Hearing the shower turn off, she waited a couple seconds until she was sure Marco was covered up before announcing to the camera, “And Marco’s alright, just so you all know. Say ‘hi’, Marco!”

As she addressed her friend, she turned the laptop so it was facing him. Marco let out a choked-sounding noise and shut the laptop, abruptly ending Star’s video. 

“I don’t want the computer to watch me shower” he informed her, his eyes narrowed slightly. A second later, some kind of realization seemed to hit him, as his face suddenly went red and he backed away from the Mewnian princess, gripping his towel more tightly around himself. 

“And what are you doing in here?!” he asked, receiving a confused look in return. 

“Making a video” Star replied, her tone of voice making it clear that she figured that was obvious. “Duh.” 

The boy seemed flustered for a moment as he responded, “That’s not what I meant. I meant why –“ 

He was cut off when Star’s wand suddenly ripped itself from her hand and began to hover in the air between the two friends. A second passed with them just staring at the floating object, neither one seeming to have any idea of what was going on. 

Even Star couldn’t guess what was happening with her wand. Her initial assumption was that she was experiencing another magic burst, but that couldn’t be it – all her other bursts would be cut off when she let go of the wand, and right now, she wasn’t even touching it, yet it was still floating. 

“What’s up with your wand?” Marco asked.

Star could only shrug as she said, “I dunno.” 

Before she could say anything more, the wand began to move, quickly flying out of the bathroom and darting downstairs. 

Star and Marco were about to follow it, but before they could actually go downstairs themselves, the wand shot back up – nearly missing Star’s head as it did so. 

“…I almost died” she said in a somewhat hollow-sounding voice, her eyes wide with terror and realization. Once that shock had faded, the two once again tried to follow the track of the wand, which seemed to be more or less random. 

It finally flew into Star’s bedroom, where it finally landed…on Star’s open spell book, which promptly slammed itself shut the moment the wand landed on its pages. 

Star ran over to the Book and tried to open it so she could get her wand back, but it refused to open.

Instead, it suddenly floated upwards and then rocketed forward, slamming into Marco and sending him – without his towel, which had been knocked off when the book hit him – into Star’s closet, whose door slammed shut a second later. 

Star rushed over, intending to open the door. However, when she told Marco of her plan, he protested, saying he wasn’t “decent”, which caused Star to glance over to where his towel had fallen, a reminder that he was currently naked. 

“Don’t come in!” Marco instructed from the other side of the door, to which Star responded that she didn’t intend to. 

It wasn’t until her friend said that he was all set that the princess actually tried to open the door. To her surprise, the door seemed to have locked itself when it shut, as when she tried to turn the knob, it did little more than just wiggle a little. 

She had even climbed onto the door to see if the added leverage would help budge the door, but no luck. 

“Try the knob” Marco suggested from the other side. 

Star shot a slightly annoyed look at the slats in the door, even though she wasn’t sure if he’d be able to see. 

“What do you think I’m doing?” she asked him, pausing in her efforts to open the door to gently push away one of the laser puppies – Sajak – as he ran past her. Normally she’d love to play with the puppies, but right now, she had way more important things to worry about. 

“The last time I locked myself out of the closet, I just used my wand” she admitted as she kept trying to open the closet door. 

She was so focused on the current task that she barely paid attention to anything else going on around her…until she suddenly heard a voice asking, “What are you doing?” 

Wondering who had just spoken, Star opened her eyes to find Glossaryck floating directly in front of her face. 

Taken aback by this sudden appearance, Star let out a small yelp of surprise as she accidentally let go of the doorknob, resulting in her crashing to the ground. 

Glossaryck seemed completely unconcerned with this development, and just floated down to be closer to the princess, giving her a look that seemed to indicate he was awaiting an answer to his question. 

“Oh, hey, Glossaryck” Star said, greeting her mentor with a raise of her hand. “I’m just trying to get into my closet, ‘cause my wand’s locked in there.” 

“Hey! What about me?” Marco demanded from inside the closet. 

“Oh, yeah, and Marco’s in there, too. And my spell book. Basically all my stuff’s stuck in my closet…and I really want them back.” 

Glossaryck looked at the doorknob and then looked back at Star, who had gotten back onto her feet. The magic man suddenly climbed into the keyhole, presumably going into the closet for some reason. 

Star waited for a couple seconds, wondering if maybe he was going to find a way to open the door from the other side. 

After about a minute passed with no changes, she decided to try and find another way to get the door open. She came back with a huge sword, which she stuck into the slats in the door and tried to use as a crowbar, attempting to pry open the door that way. 

She was in the middle of this when Glossarcyk suddenly came back out of the keyhole. He looked back and forth between the two for several seconds, before finally settling his attention back on the Mewnian princess. 

“Why don’t you just open it with magic?” he asked, sounding as though he thought that was the obvious solution to the problem. And, to be fair, he would normally be absolutely right in that assumption, but there was one problem with that suggestion.

“I just told you – my wand’s locked in the closet. I can’t do any magic” Star reminded Glossaryck, pointing at the closet door with one hand to try and emphasize her point. 

This seemed to intrigue the little blue wizard-man, as he gasped before looking at Star with wide eyes. 

“Do you want to try the _hard_ way?” he asked Star, whose eyes widened just as much as his had just seconds before. 

“Yeah…what’s the hard way?” she asked, her tone remaining enthusiastic even as she admitted to having no idea what he was referring to. 

Glossaryck seemed surprised that Star had never heard of the method, but seemed just as eager to tell her about it. 

All of a sudden, the two of them were transported into what seemed to be a dimension that was almost entirely empty, save for a small platform where they were seated with a large black cauldron between them. 

Glossaryck had said that this was the inside of his eyeball, and Star was about to question how it was possible for Glossaryck to be inside his own eyeball, or why they had to be in here for her to learn how to do magic “the hard way”, but she was stopped when Glossaryck began to speak. 

“Okay, Star – imagine that the universe is like this cauldron, and the stew inside is the magic, and your wand is the spoon” he said, summoning a fake version of her wand as he listed it off. 

He was about to continue when Star interrupted, pointing out that her wand wasn’t a spoon – it was a wand.

They debated for a few seconds, before Glossaryck finally gave in and transformed the fake wand into the shape of a wooden spoon. He sighed at he looked at the spoon and then back at the soup in the cauldron…but his expression subtly changed as he looked back at Star, who was eagerly awaiting to hear more of the explanation. 

“You know, cauldrons don’t just have to stand for the universe – they can represent all sorts of different things. In fact, some people here on Earth think that a magic cauldron is sort of like a womb, since you put things into it and when the process is done something entirely new emerges” he said casually as he stirred the stew, dropping in a couple slices of carrot and what looked like a turkey drumstick to help emphasize his point. “But, I suppose you’re very familiar with that interpretation, aren’t you?” 

However, Star just stared at him with a blank expression for a few seconds before admitting, “Not really. I’m still kind of learning about Earth culture, actually.” 

This seemed to surprise Glossaryck. “Really?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “But I thought you’d studied certain parts of Earth culture _very_ intensely with that friend of yours. You know – the one that’s in the closet right now?” 

Star shook her head in response. “Well, yeah, Marco’s helped me learn a lot about how things work on Earth, but he’s never really mentioned anything about cauldrons. Actually, I don’t think people on Earth even use cauldrons for everything – they just pots,” she explained, seeming to drift off slightly as she thought about it. 

“Okay, never mind all that” Glossaryck suddenly said, snapping Star back to the current lesson. “Let’s just get back to the magic stew lesson, shall we?” 

He waited until Star nodded, indicating she was ready to continue with the lesson before he said anything else. 

“Now,” he continued, running the spoon over the top of the stew as he spoke, “Your wand can only skim the very top of the hobo gravy, but if you want to get at the chunks, you have to dip down.” 

The blue wizard suddenly tossed away his spoon and dipped his hands into the boiling stew, where they soon emerged, holding the gunk that had apparently sunk to the bottom of the cauldron. 

“You get what I’m saying?” he asked Star. 

Star nodded, though her expression seemed unsure, until she finally shook her head. “Nuh-uh.” 

Glossaryck sighed and the cauldron and the weird dimension around them vanished, once again leaving them in Star’s bedroom. 

“Look, you can do magic without your wand – you just have to dip down” he told her bluntly. “You know…dip down? Dip down.” 

He made hand motions to help emphasize what he was talking about, but Star was still unsure, and she voiced this concern. 

“Your mom did it” he said simply, when she seemed to question the idea of doing magic without using her wand.

He left the girl to think about what he had just said, as he went back into the locked closet through the keyhole. 

Star scoffed a little at this statement; if her mother had been able to dip down, then she was pretty sure she could do it, too, no problem. She just…had to figure out how she was supposed to do it – Glossaryck told her that she could use magic without her wand by dipping down, but he never said anything about how dipping down was supposed to work. 

However, even as she was trying to figure out how she was going to dip down, she also began to wonder if she even should do it, given her current…condition. 

She knew that the baby wouldn’t be effected by anything that physically happened to her, since they weren’t actually inside of her – that was why she could do on adventures with Marco and fight monsters without having to worry about the baby getting hurt. But, dipping down was all about magic, and according to what she’d been able to learn from the little her mother had told her on the occasion she’d asked her baby was inside the place where magic itself came from. 

Now that she remembered that fact, she began to wonder if it would be okay for her to try dipping down while she was pregnant, or if doing that might end up hurting the baby. 

Star suddenly flashed back to when she’d managed to destroy the glass cage that Marco had been trapped in; more, specifically, she flashed back to immediately after. She could remember the searing pain that had cut through her, feeling so different from the rush of power she had felt immediately before it.

It hadn’t lasted long, but it had felt horrible. Was what she had done back at the monster castle something like dipping down, and she didn’t even realize it? And if it was, did the pain she felt after mean she shouldn’t be doing it? 

“But…I have to get Marco out…” she said in a soft, barely audible voice to herself. 

For several moments, Star just stood there, unsure of what to do. She knew she had to get her friend out of her secrets’ closet, and apparently the best way to do that was to dip down and use magic; but, at the same time, she didn’t want to risk hurting her baby…or possibly worse. 

If only there was a way for her to figure out if it was actually okay for her to dip down right now or not…

As she thought, her eyes drifted to where her magic mirror was mounted on the wall. It quickly dawned on her that if anyone would be able to answer her current question, it would probably be her mother. 

Of course, she would have to ask the question in a way that wouldn’t reveal her secret, but she was sure that was something she could manage.

Still, as she approached the mirror, she began to feel slightly queasy; though, even she couldn’t say for sure if the feeling was the result of nerves or just the effects of morning sickness (which she still occasionally felt, even if they were nowhere near as intense or frequent as before). 

Star took a moment to compose herself – not wanting to risk revealing anything through her expressions – before taking a deep breath and instructing the mirror to contact her mother. 

“Star?” Queen Moon said as the mirror showed her face, which currently held a slightly surprised expression. Not without reason, in all fairness – Star usually didn’t call home unless she needed help with something…which was admittedly the case here. 

“Hi, Mommy” Star replied, smiling sheepishly as she waved at her mother. 

Almost instantly, her mother’s expression changed from surprised to somewhat exasperated. “What did you do?” she asked, her tone perfectly matching the current expression on her face. 

At first, Star tried to pretend like nothing was wrong, acting like she was just calling up her mother to chat. However, she quickly realized that wasn’t going to work, and instead just got to the whole point of her call. Or, well, started to work her way up to the point of the call, anyway. 

“Okay,” she began with a sigh. “So, Marco’s stuck in my closet and Glossaryck wants me to try dipping down so I can unlock the door and get him out.” 

Once again, Queen Moon’s expression changed, and she looked surprised once more. 

“Dip down?” she question, looking and sounding as though she couldn’t believe what her daughter had just told her. “But...I didn’t learn how to do that until I was nineteen.” 

“Wow…Wow! So, that must mean that I’m like…really advanced or something, huh?” Star marveled, momentarily forgetting the actual point of her calling up her mother in the first place. It took seeing her mother’s lack of any sort of amusement at this question to help her remember exactly what information she was trying to get out of her. 

“But, um, speaking of you dipping down” Star began, doing her best to sound completely casual. “Did you ever do it before I was born – like, right before I was born?”

The question seemed to surprise Moon somewhat, as she looked taken aback when Star finished asking. 

“Well, no, there was never any need for me to do such a thing back then” she explained. “And that is something I must admit I am very grateful for, as dipping down is far from easy – it requires summoning everything you have, and it can be a very intense process, even when you have experience doing it.” 

Her answer made Star begin to feel uneasy; mostly because it didn’t really answer her question. 

She was about to try and ask another question, in the hopes that maybe the answer this one got would be a little more useful, when her mother asked a question of her own: “Why do you ask?”

That simple question made Star’s heart stop, while her brain was unable to process anything other than repeating a single word over and over; a word that she knew would get quite the reaction from her mother if she said it out loud. 

She was so busy mentally freaking out that it took her a second to realize that her mother was trying to get her attention. When she did notice it, however, she quickly forced herself back to reality. 

“No real reason” Star said, waving her hand dismissively. “I just thought that maybe that was why I was apparently so advanced that Glossaryck thought I was ready to try dipping down already.” 

She watched her mother’s expression, looking for any sign that she believed her explanation. The Queen’s expression had gone back to being slightly exasperated, which relieved Star somewhat; annoyed was better than suspicious, especially in this instance. 

Still, she was now eager to end the conversation before she had the chance to say anything else that might make her mother wonder what was going on with her. 

Fortunately, she soon got an excuse to do just that, in the form of noises coming from inside her closet. 

“Yeah, well, sorry, Mom, I gotta go. Gotta try and dip down to get Marco out of the closet. Nice talking to you. Love you. Bye.” Star said, speaking rather quickly at the end as she pressed the button on the side of the mirror to end the call. 

Once that was done, Star let out a breath that she didn’t even realize she’d been holding until just then, her body becoming considerably more relaxed as she did so. 

Now she had to figure out how she was supposed to get Marco out of the closet. She may have taken advantage of the situation to have an excuse to end the call with her mother as quickly as possible, but the fact still stood that she really _did_ have to figure out a way to help her friend. 

However, despite the circumstances, she still wasn’t sure if she actually wanted to dip down. Her mother’s answer hadn’t given her any sort of answer to her question over whether it would be safe for her to do so or not. 

Still, her mother did say something that, while it didn’t really help in regards to the dipping down issue, might help with the situation regarding Marco and the secrets’ closet. 

“Summon everything I have…” Star muttered to herself as she looked around her room – and, more specifically, looked at all of the objects and furniture lying about – before turning her attention to the closet door. 

With the idea sparked inside her mind, the Mewnian princess started to put her plan into action, going around the room and collecting every object she could manage to lift – which ended up being a vast majority of the furniture in the room. 

Once she had collected everything she could, she managed to find a catapult, as well as a knight’s helmet and a giant sword that she’d shoved under her bed at one point. She put on the helmet and, after positioning it so that it was aimed towards the closet door, piled everything she’d gathered into the catapult. 

“You want everything?” she asked aloud to no one in particular as she pulled down the catapult and tied it down. “Then everything you shall get.” 

She lowered the visor of her helmet and lifted the sword, ready to swing it and cut the rope, which she did about a second later. Everything that had been piled into the catapult went flying at the door, hitting it (and the surrounding wall) with a loud crash, and what should have been enough force to get the door to open. 

But, as Star quickly discovered, that door was apparently much tougher than she thought, as despite her throwing literally everything she had at it, it remained closed. 

“…Did anything happen?” Star muttered softly to herself as she made a little space in front of the door for her to step into. 

Once she was close enough, she grabbed the doorknob and tried to open it, hoping that maybe her last attempt had at least done _something_. To her dismay, the only response she got when she tried to turn the knob was the same slight wriggle that she’d received when she’d tried earlier. 

After discovering that her plan had failed, Star just sort of…gave up, sliding down to the floor and laying in front of the locked closet. 

“Well, Marco, it looks like I’m just a skimmer, skimming the surface of the hobo gravy” she said in a hollow-sounding voice. 

In the same tone, she asked Marco how things were going on his side of the closet. She was hoping for some good news – maybe he’d found a way to get out from his side, since it didn’t look like she was going to have any luck opening the door from the outside. 

Unfortunately, her hopes were quickly dashed by his response: “Not so good. You…thwarted all my progress.” 

Normally, Star would have cringed at this news, but right now, all she could do was sigh. Still, she tried her best to make the best of the situation, despite how she felt. 

“I guess it might not be that bad, really. I could slide you sandwiches and other kinds of flat stuff to eat, under the door. Bring you your homework every day. Who knows? Life could be good for you, in there” she suggested, her words and tone not matching in the slightest. She was trying to look on the bright side of things, but she couldn’t even really make herself sound convincing. 

“I don’t want to live in your secrets’ closet!” Marco protested. 

After that, Star kind of stopped paying attention to what was going on inside the closet. She could hear Marco talking to Glossarcyk, but couldn’t hear what they were saying, and couldn’t bring herself to focus enough to try and figure it out. 

A small voice in the back of her head was pressuring her, insisting that she needed to at least try to dip down and unlock the door…but she couldn’t bring herself to risk it; without knowing if it was safe for the baby, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to take the chance, even if it meant helping her best friend. 

“Hey, Star, I found some kind of book…written in…Mewnian writing” Marco announced from inside the closet. This got Star’s attention, though only enough that she was able to comment that reading would be good for him. 

However, what she heard next got her to completely snap out of her current stupor: “Oh, wait, here’s something in English. ‘Chapter one, Mom’s a poop head.’” 

Hearing those very familiar words, Star blankly repeated them before the horrifying realization of what book Marco was reading dawned on her. She gasped and began to scramble at the door, desperately yelling at Marco that the book he was reading wasn’t what he was looking for. 

Despite her protests, the boy seemed to continue reading, as a few seconds later, she heard him reading a passage from later on in the journal. 

“Marco! Put that down! It’s not the thing! I’m telling you – it is not the thing!” Star insisted, pounding on the door in a now even more desperate attempt to keep him from reading any further. She had to stop him before he started reading chapter eleven, and especially before he got to her latest entry (which she was now mentally kicking herself for writing). 

And then she heard the words she was dreading: “’Chapter eleven, my thoughts on…Marco?’” 

Star suddenly felt herself going into a trance, everything seeming to fade away she felt her body being lifted into the air. 

The only things she was aware of were the incredible power that felt like it was coursing through her – like nothing she’d ever felt before, even more intense than when she’d destroyed the crystal cage – and a strange warm and tingly feeling in her cheeks, particularly in the areas marked by her hearts. 

It felt absolutely incredible…but it only lasted a few seconds before she floated back to the ground; and the instant her feet, she was hit by the worst pain she could have ever imagined, focused in her stomach. 

It felt as though someone was repeatedly stabbing at her belly from the inside, the pain so intense that she doubled over, unable to move from that spot, even as she was vaguely aware of the fact that the closet door had finally opened, and Marco had fallen out, still holding her journal and wrapped up in what seemed to be some of her old clothes.

“Star!” Marco cried, throwing the book aside and running over to his friend. “Are you okay?!” 

Star was unable to answer, though she was sure that would probably be an answer in-and-of itself. All she could do was try to breathe through her clenched teeth in a desperate attempt to mitigate the pain she was experiencing. 

Then, suddenly, she was aware of two things.

One was Marco putting on hand on her shoulder and gently grabbing her arm with the other hand, tugging gently as he said,“C’mon, let’s get you in bed, and I’ll call someone to help.” 

The other – and the one that really grabbed her attention – was what felt almost like a release of pressure as the pains in her stomach seemed to recede slightly, followed almost immediately by the sensation of something warm and wet between her legs. 

Suddenly full of dread, she shakily reach a hand between her legs, touching her now damp leggings before removing her hand and taking a look at it. Upon doing so, however, she instantly wished she hadn’t; there, on the tips of her fingers, was what was clearly blood. There wasn’t a lot of it, but even Star – someone who had almost no idea of what to expect when it came to pregnancy – knew that this couldn’t mean anything good, and she instantly felt the blood drain from her face as her body began to tremble slightly and her vision began to blur from the tears that were beginning to form in her eyes. 

“No…no…no, no, no, no, no” she said, speaking more to herself than to anyone else, unable to take her eyes off the blood on her fingertips, even as the image became less clear due to tears that were now starting to actually flow. 

Marco also seemed to have noticed the blood, though his reaction was a bit different. Upon seeing the red fluid on his friend’s hand, he couldn’t help but flinch slightly, removing his hand from her arm, though he still kept what was clearly meant to be a comforting hand on her shoulder. 

“Hey, uh, it’ll be okay” he said, clearly trying his best to comfort Star, even if it was also clear that the situation was making him uncomfortable. “Why don’t you just lay down and take it easy for a bit, and I’ll just get you some aspirin to help with your…” 

He spoke quickly and trailed off, clearly wanting to retreat from the situation as quickly as possible. 

Still too stunned by what had happened to speak, Star could only nod in response to his suggestion. She allowed him to help her up and lead her to her bed, where she simply laid down and stared at the ceiling while he went to look for the pain-killers. 

He came back a few minutes later (changed into his jeans and t-shirt, though his hoodie was absent) with a bottle of pills and a glass of water, which he handed to her before opening the bottle and doling out a couple of the capsules. 

“Here” he said, holding out the hand that now held the pills. 

The princess took the pills without a word and swallowed them, washing them down with the water. Once she had drained the glass, she handed it back to him. 

“Thanks…” she said, her voice barely loud enough to be audible; she was still reeling from what happened, and founding speaking difficult, but still wanted to show her friend that she did appreciate what he was doing – even if it really wasn’t going to fix anything. 

Marco gave her a reassuring smile and, with a slight bit of hesitation, put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. 

“Don’t worry – it’s going to be okay. Just relax until you’re feeling better” he told her. 

Star was tempted to argue against his first point, but found she just couldn’t. After all, he was genuinely trying to make her feel better, and even if it wasn’t really working, she still had to appreciate the sentiment. So, rather than say another word, she simply nodded her head in agreement and once again laid down, though this time she at least closed her eyes, rather than simply stare at the ceiling.

She could hear him leaving the room and behind her eyelids, she could tell that the room had gone dark, meaning Marco had turned off the lights before he left. 

Despite herself, Star felt the corners of her lips turn upwards for the briefest of moments at this act of thoughtfulness. 

However, any positivity she was feeling instantly vanished a second later, when she heard Glossaryck’s voice by her ear. 

“Well, your wand’s broken, but you should probably try it out anyway” he said, and Star could tell from just the tone of his voice that he was shrugging. 

“Glossarcyk…just leave me alone. Please.” Star requested, never once opening her eyes or even making any attempt to look at her mentor.

To her slight surprise, he didn’t say anything more; in fact, based on the fact that she could hear the pages of her book rapidly flipping, followed by the sound of the book slamming shut, she actually figured he’d decided to leave her be, at least for the time being. This was something she was incredibly grateful for; she really wasn’t in the mood to deal with, well, anyone or anything right now. 

Now that she was alone, she thought she would start sobbing…but she didn’t. Oh, it still hurt – both the physical pain from her stomach cramping up and the emotional pain of…she didn’t even want to think about it. 

But, despite this, and despite the fact that she had been crying only moments before, she now felt she just couldn’t cry. She just felt sort of numb, like the weight of everything had hit, and even though she could feel the pain from it, her body wouldn’t react.

The only thing she could do was try to fall asleep, and desperately hope that when she awoke, this whole thing would turn out to have just been a horrible nightmare. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

“You know, you really should test this thing out.” 

Star could hear Glossaryck’s voice, and she would have ignored it and just continued to sleep…if it weren’t immediately followed by her being poked in the face with something slightly pointy. It didn’t hurt, but it was annoying enough that she lost her patience and sat up, if only to swat the thing away. 

She wasn’t at all surprised to discover that Glossaryck had been the one poking her, and that he had been using her wand to do it. 

“Glossarcyk…I said I wanted to be left alone” Star reminded the little blue man in a weary voice. 

At first she had been annoyed, until she spotted her hand, and the clear evidence that what had happened earlier hadn’t just been some bad dream that would be gone when she woke up. That had almost completely drained any energy she had, even for showing annoyance towards her mentor’s irritating behavior. 

“Yes, yes you did” Glossaryck replied with a nod of his head. “But, that doesn’t change the fact that you do need to give your wand a test…unless you want to deal with something like the closet scenario again in the future.” 

Knowing it wouldn’t be worth the effort to try and argue with him, Star simply let out a frustrated sigh. 

“ _Fine_ ” she said in an exasperated tone, stretching out the word to help emphasize that she was not happy about what she was doing. Still, she reached out and snatched the wand away from him. 

The instant the device was in her grasp, before she could even think of a spell, the crystal began to glow with magical energy; and a second later, the room was coated in what seemed like a sparkly green dust and a miniature tower sprouted out of the junction between the Diazes’ house and Star’s bedroom tower. 

For a moment, the room was full of silence. Then Glossaryck broke it by exclaiming, “I call dibs on the new tower!” 

With that announcement made, he suddenly vanished, presumably to check out his new “room”, and leaving Star alone. 

She just sat in the empty room in silence for a moment, before an overwhelming feeling of relief came flooding through her. She was so happy, she even began to cry, though she quickly wiped the tears away.

That morning, or even just earlier that day, she would have been incredibly annoyed by the sudden magical burst. Now, however, she was nothing but grateful for it, because of what that simple unplanned spell meant: that her baby was still okay, despite everything. 

Star genuinely couldn’t believe how lucky she was that things had turned out as well as they had. Still…what happened earlier had been terrifying, and she never wanted to go through something like that ever again.

“Okay,” she said to herself, grasping her wand tightly. “So, no more dipping down for a while – that’s definitely a bad idea. And –“ She placed a hand on her belly as she let out a sigh. “I’ve got to try and find out more about this…somehow.” 

The first part of her self-imposed promise would be easy enough – all she’d have to do is make sure she kept her wand nearby, so she wouldn’t have to worry about needing to dip down to use her magic. 

The second thing, however…that was a bit of a different story. 

Oh, Star was certain there were plenty of ways for her to get information regarding her pregnancy…if she didn’t also have to worry about keeping it a secret. Still, she knew getting at least some more information than what she had would be good; she just had to think of a way to get it without risking revealing her secret to anyone who might be able to tell either her parents or Marco. 

As she thought, her eyes trailed off to where her spell book was lying on the floor, and an idea suddenly came to her. 

Her book was full of not only spells, but notes and histories from all of the previous queens of Mewni. She wouldn’t have been at all surprised if at least a few of them had made notes about their pregnancies and written them down somewhere in the book. It probably wouldn’t be much, but it would be more than what she had, and that was good enough for her. And being able to sneak a look at those notes probably wouldn’t be too hard, so long as she was reading the book already…

”Guess I’m gonna be doing some studying pretty soon” Star said aloud to herself. She wasn’t really looking forward to having to actually read her spell book, but if it meant having a way to learn more about her pregnancy, while also keeping her baby safe, she would be willing to do it. 

But, that could wait until a later time. 

For now, Star raised her wand and cast a quick spell to clean up her room, before going into the bathroom to clean herself up – as well as casting a quick spell on her clothes to clean them off and remove the stains from her underwear and leggings. 

Once she was done with that – and had changed into a new set of clean clothes – she practically bounced downstairs, planning on joining Marco for lunch before figuring out some kind of fun adventure for the two of them to go on. 

She wasn’t exactly sure what they could do, but at the moment, she figured it didn’t really matter – just so long as they got to just hang out together and have some fun. After what they’d been through, she figured that was the least they deserved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a shorter chapter than usual, but this honestly felt like the best place to end this particular part of the story, and it covers everything I feel it needed to cover, so while I kind of wish it could be a little longer, I also feel this is a good length for the story this chapter needs to tell.
> 
> Once again, I have to thank my friend Malthus1 on Reddit, as he helped with the bit of dialogue where Glossaryck brings up the alternative interpretation of what a cauldron can represent. 
> 
> And, if any of you were wondering, yes, Glossaryck does know that Star is pregnant. However, he's also not going to tell anyone about it, unless he thinks that it would benefit him to do so...while also being as unhelpful as possible to anyone else.
> 
> I did feel bad about putting Star through the experience she had in this chapter, but the next couple of chapters will give her a bit of a break from that. Still not going to be completely easy, but still less stressful than it's been for her in the past couple of chapters. And she'll definitely be able to have some fun, something she's definitely needed lately.


	6. Chapter 6

For about a week following the incident with Star’s wand and her secrets’ closet, things were relatively calm for Star and Marco. The princess did still have to deal with occasional stomach cramps (some of which could get rather intense) for a few days afterwards, but she did her best to ignore them.

It didn’t always work, especially because of how bad they could sometimes get, but as long as she continued to receive proof that the pains weren’t actually causing any real harm, she dealt with them well enough. Plus, whenever they did get particularly bad, she was able to take some pain-killers, which did tend to work fairly well in alleviating the symptoms. 

Of course, whenever the cramps would get bad enough that Star would be unable to hide the fact that she was in pain, Marco would try to insist she see someone – just in case. 

Star, out of both doubting that the doctors wouldn’t be able to tell what was going on with her and fearing that maybe they would be able to figure out the truth, simply kept telling him that she would be fine. She could tell that he didn’t fully believe her, but outside of sometimes trying to continue convincing her to take his advice, he didn’t force the issue too much. 

Star did feel guilty about making him worry so much. However, she couldn’t bring herself to tell him the reason why she was so against seeking medical attention. 

Any time she considered telling him the truth, she would start to think about the possibility of how he might respond, and her old fears would come back. No matter how much she tried to convince herself that she should tell him, the self-argument would always end in her putting it off, usually by finding some reason for why it wasn’t the right time. 

But, ultimately, the past week was pretty ordinary – to the point of almost being boring, though not quite. 

Still, without having much in the way of things to keep her mind busy, Star was looking forward to getting something to mix things up a little. And, to her excitement, that hope was answered when it was announced that their school would be getting a new guidance counselor: Mr. Candle. 

At first, Star wasn’t really that excited…until Marco explained to her what a school guidance counselor was supposed to do. Apparently he was going to help them figure out what was going to happen in their futures. 

That made Star go from somewhat curious to super excited to meet with the man; how could she not be interested in talking to a man who could tell her future? 

Well, for a moment, her excitement was tinged with fear – if this Mr. Candle would be able to tell her future, would he be able to see, well, everything? And if he could see everything that was going to happen in her future, would he tell anyone else about what he saw? 

Fortunately, when she brought up this question to Marco, he told her that the counselor was only supposed to really talk to them about their future careers, at least for this first meeting. 

Apparently he could talk about other stuff, but he was only really supposed to discuss careers, and maybe answer some questions of theirs. He wasn’t really supposed to pry too much. 

With that to set her worries at ease, Star once again became excited at the idea of talking to the guidance counselor, to the point where he started getting a little antsy waiting for the day and time to arrive. 

Finally the day came when everyone in their class was supposed to have their first meeting with Mr. Candle. They even got to take up most of one of their class periods to meet up with him, which only added to Star’s excitement; anything that allowed them to miss one of their boring classes to learn about their futures had to be something great, as far as she was concerned. 

She and Marco sat side by side as they waited for their turns to see Mr. Candle, her barely being able to stay seated as she was filled with energy and anticipation to hear what Mr. Candle could tell her about her future. 

It didn’t help that several of her schoolmates came out of the office, talking about how Mr. Candle had predicted that they were going to have jobs in the future that they were going to love. 

“Wow, everyone’s getting really awesome careers” Marco commented as Oskar and Chet discussed what Mr. Candle had said they were going to do when they were older. 

“I can’t wait to see what he’s gonna say about my future. It’s going to be so awesome!” Star couldn’t help but squeal, swinging her legs slightly to help get rid of the energy that was building up inside of her from the pure excitement. If she didn’t do that, she was pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to stay seated. 

The door suddenly opened and a voice came from inside, beckoning the young princess inside. 

Star literally jumped out of her seat and bounced into Mr. Candle’s office, taking a moment to close the door behind her before taking a seat in front of the counselor’s desk. 

“Feel free to have some candy – there’s plenty” Mr. Candle offered, gesturing towards the candy bowl on his desk, which had a little cat statue with moving eyes attached to it. 

“No. Thank. You.” Star answered, mimicking the cat statue’s movements with her own eyes before sitting down again. 

“Mr. Candle, I cannot tell you how excited I am to finally get to meet with you, and get my fortune told” she said, rocking back and forth slightly before leaning against the desk. “So, how does this work, exactly? You gonna read my palms? Use a crystal ball and talk with some ghosts? Examine head lumps?” 

To her slight disappointment, Mr. Candle just shook his head as he answered her question: “Nope, it’s just going to be regular guidance counselor stuff. Now…have you thought about your future at all?” 

Star sat back slightly and thought about the question for a moment. She had thought about what she wanted to do when she got older, but now that she was going to have a baby to take care of, she started to wonder if she would still be able to do that. 

Finally, after thinking if over for a bit, she decided she could probably find out a way to balance the two things well enough, and told Mr. Candle what was on her mind. 

“Oh, yeah, totally – when I grow up, I wanna raise warnicorns!” Star exclaimed excitedly. To help demonstrate what she was talking about, her whipped out her wand and quickly transformed her chair into a warnicorn, which immediately reared up and started neighing like it was ready to go into battle. 

“Yes, well, that sounds like a very interesting hobby,” Mr. Candle said, in a tone that made him sound like a parent trying to be patient with a very frustrating child. “But you may not have a lot of time for hobbies when you’re the Queen of Mewni.” 

All of a sudden, the excitement that had been running through Star’s mind and body seemed to vanish. She looked down at the counselor with an unsure expression and asked in a small voice, “Queen?” 

As though responding to her emotions – or maybe she was having another magic burst, at this point she wasn’t really paying attention to which it was – the warnicorn vanished, causing Star to slump back into the chair once more. 

Not seeming to notice how upset she was, Mr. Candle just nodded.

“I may not know your fortune, but your future is set in stone” he told her, and his words felt like a serious punch to the gut for the young Mewman. 

Not so long ago, those words would have stung because they’d have made her worry because being queen was the last thing she wanted. It wasn’t that she didn’t care about her people, but whenever she thought about the responsibilities and how uncomfortable being queen looked and how it didn’t seem like there was ever time for fun…she just wanted to scream. 

Now, however, Mr. Candle’s words stung because they made her realize something very, very important: she had no idea what her future held now. 

Maybe she was once destined to be the next Queen of Mewni, and technically that was still the case, but she knew it wouldn’t be for too much longer. 

She knew that as soon as it was discovered that she’d had a baby without being married first, she would be kicked out of both her family and the line of succession; and while she could hide her pregnancy, she knew that hiding the actual baby wasn’t really going to be possible, at least not for very long. 

And once that happened…she honestly had no idea what she was going to do. 

She hoped that she could stay with Marco and his family, but she still hadn’t told him about the baby (she wanted to, she really did, but it never felt like the right time), and she wasn’t sure how he’d react when he found out. So, she knew she couldn’t depend on that. 

The worry began to make her feel sick to her stomach, and she tried her best to think about something, anything, else.

Thankfully, she was given a distraction, courtesy of Mr. Candle. 

“So, that Marco boy, what’s your relationship like?” the counselor asked, causing his current charge to look up at him. “You…got a secret crush on him or something?” 

The question confused Star; what did it matter to Mr. Candle how she felt about Marco? Still, she wasn’t exactly in the mood to question him, and she was thankful for the ability to stop thinking about her future, if only for a few moments. 

“He’s my roommate. We’re just friends” she informed Mr. Candle simply. 

In the back of her mind, she couldn’t help but wonder if maybe things were more complicated than she claimed they were. After all, he was also the father of her unborn child…

Star mentally shook her head, careful to make sure she didn’t actually perform the action. She didn’t know what those thoughts were doing in her head. 

Sure, she thought Marco was kind of cute…but she thought plenty of things, boys included, were cute, and she didn’t have any sort of romantic feelings for any of them, so why would Marco be any different. 

And, yeah, the baby did complicate things a little…but a lot of that had been because of Mewberty. Maybe that had made her a little confused, and made her briefly start seeing Marco as being cute in a _different_ way, and made her think she loved him less like a best friend and more like a boyfriend. But, that was weeks ago, and she was sure the effects of her Mewberty were completely gone, so Star was certain that there was no way Marco was anything more than a friend to her. 

Well, okay, that wasn’t exactly true – he was her best friend; but the idea was more or less the same thing. 

“Yeah, that would be pretty weird, dating your roommate. Still, maybe there’s someone else? After all, it’s never too early to start thinking about who’s going to be the future King of Mewni” Mr. Candle said. 

Star just shrugged in response, not really in the mood to talk about this particular subject – her mind was too busy thinking about the uncertainty of her future. 

The counselor gave what was no doubt meant to be a reassuring smile as he told the girl to cheer up, handing her a piece of candy with a flourish. 

Figuring that the meeting was over, Star stood up and trudged out of the office, just as downtrodden now as she had been excited when she went in. She heard Marco call her name and ask her something, but she was too lost in her thoughts to respond, and just continued to walk away. 

The only thing echoing through her mind was a simple question with no easy answer: what was she going to do? She kept thinking about the question and trying to come up with some kind of answer to it for several minutes, until Marco came up to her, complaining about something Mr. Candle had said. 

Maybe it was because she was stressed out from her own worries, but she just couldn’t bring herself to be sympathetic about his plight. 

“Then don’t do that!” she told him in a frustrated tone of voice. “You should consider yourself lucky that you actually get to have some kind of say in what’s going to happen with your life. Not everyone gets that chance, you know.”

Her words seemed to affect Marco, and his expression softened. 

“Hey…is something bothering you?” he asked, placing a hand on her shoulder, both to get her attention and in a gesture to offer sympathy and comfort. 

“…It’s what Mr. Candle told me. He said I have to be Queen when I’m older, but…” Star allowed her words to drift off as she spoke, unable to continue with her thought and instead allowing the true reason for why the words bothered her to remain a mystery to her friend. 

The boy seemed ready to say something, before his attention was grabbed by something else. 

“Hold that thought” he instructed before walking away towards the boys’ bathroom. 

Ignoring his last statement, Star simply walked away, heading to her next class. At least the school day was almost over, and she’d be able to go home soon…even though she knew her problem would still be there, no matter where she was. 

But, maybe she’d be able to actually think of a solution to her problem if she didn’t also have to deal with the boredom caused by schoolwork or the distraction of trying to remember the teachers’ lectures, or taking notes about them. 

The rest of the day passed slowly, now that the excitement of getting to talk to Mr. Candle about the future was gone. 

At one point, Star briefly considered just holding onto her wand and waiting to see if she’d have a magic burst – just for the sake of livening things up a little. 

She ultimately decided against it. Even if it did makes things more interesting, it’d also most likely result in her having to stay at school a little longer, and today, all she wanted to do was go home as quickly as possible. Still, despite feeling like it dragged on, the school day did eventually end, and Star made her way home. 

She took a brief moment to see if Marco was around and wanted a quick way back to his house, before taking out her dimensional scissors and cutting open a portal directly into her bedroom. 

Once inside, she plopped down on her bed and began to think about her possible options. 

The first thing that came to her mind was to just tell Marco – and, by extension, his parents – about the baby. Not only did he deserve to know about his child, but that would also mean she’d have a place to stay once she was officially exiled from Mewni.

She wouldn’t really mind that - she loved the Diazes like a second family, and their home was basically like a second home to her. Why wouldn’t she like to just live here from now on? 

But then the doubt began to creep into her thoughts, reminding her that this was a best-case scenario, and she had no way of knowing if things would turn out like that. 

A big part of why she had yet to tell Marco she was pregnant, despite having known for over a month at this point, was because she had no idea how he was going to respond to the news. Maybe he’d take it well…but maybe he wouldn’t. 

Even if he most likely wouldn’t want her gone, she wasn’t sure if she’d want to live together if things would end up being bad between them. 

So, if he didn’t take the news well, she would be right back to where she started – alone (save for a baby, who she’d have to take care of, all on her own), and with nowhere to go and no real way to take care of herself, or her child. 

Star began to play around with her wand as she tried to think of what her future might hold. 

That sparked an idea: maybe she could just use her wand, and everything would work out fine. After all, the wand could make literally anything she needed or wanted.

If Marco didn’t take the news about the baby well, and she had to leave, then she could just use her magic and make a new place to live and everything she and the baby needed to get by. It would be easy! 

However, as she thought more about it, the princess began to realize that her plan wasn’t going to work. 

After all, if she was going to be kicked out of the line of succession and forced out of the Kingdom…why would they ever let her keep the magic wand, something that was supposed to go to the next Queen of Mewni? 

Which meant she was right back where she started, having no idea what she was going to do. 

For some time, she wracked her mind, trying desperately to think of some solution to her problem that could actually work out, but to no avail. Every time she thought of a possible answer, she would quickly think of some reason why it wouldn’t work. 

With every passing moment, the situation seemed more and more hopeless, and she wanted less and less to think about it. But, no matter how much she tried to think of other things, this problem kept forcing itself to the front of her thoughts, making it all but impossible to ignore. 

Nothing seemed to be able to distract her from her worries, until she heard a roar of flames, followed by Marco’s voice calling her name in a concerned tone. 

“Oh, hey, Marco” she replied in an almost trance-like voice, waving her hand in greeting. 

“Star…there’s something I need to tell you” Marco said, seeming not to notice the fact that his friend wasn’t really paying much attention to him.

Still, she was vaguely curious as to what he wanted to tell her, and turned her head in the direction of his voice. 

To her immense surprise, she not only saw Marco standing in her room, but Tom was right there beside him, looking somewhat ashamed for some reason. That was enough to snap Star out of her stupor, and she looked between the two boys, gesturing between them as her mouth fell open. She had so many questions about this situation, but wasn’t exactly sure where she wanted to start. 

Finally, she was able to get the words out: “What is going on here?!” 

For a moment, no one spoke, until Tom looked over at Marco and received a glare in response. The demon prince sighed and turned his attention back to Star. 

“Star, I have a confession to make: I tried to use Mr. Candle to get back together with you. I figured that if you thought the only thing you could really do when you got older was be the Queen, then maybe you’d decide to be with me again. But, after completely slaughtering Marco in ping-pong, I finally realized that was the wrong thing to do, and I shouldn’t try to control your life like that. And, I am so sorry about even thinking of doing something like that” Tom said, sounding surprisingly remorseful during the little speech…besides when he brought up beating Marco at ping-pong, at which point it sounded more like bragging while attempting to sound casual. 

For a moment, Star didn’t know how to respond. Then, she walked over to the boys, not saying a word, her face showing no sign of anger, despite Tom’s confession of attempted manipulation. 

Suddenly, her eyes narrowed and she punched him, hard, in the chest. Tom briefly doubled over, letting out a gasp of pain as he put a hand to his chest, touching the spot where Star’s first had made contact. 

“Okay…yeah…I probably deserved that” he admitted as he straightened himself up; he was quick to recover from the blow, though his face betrayed the fact that the impact still stung, at least a little. 

“You tricked me!” Star said angrily. However, her anger quickly melted away to sadness as she continued, “But, it’s not like it really makes a difference, does it?” 

After all, regardless of whether Mr. Candle was saying what Tom had told him to say or not, the fact of the matter was that Star wasn’t going to be Queen someday, and that meant her future was one big unknown. 

All of a sudden, Marco’s voice cut into her thoughts. “Maybe not…but is that really such a bad thing?” he questioned, receiving a confused look in return. “You might have to become Queen one day, but that won’t be so bad. After all, you won’t be running Mewni like anyone else before you – you’ll do it in your own way. No matter how destructive.” 

Despite his reassurance (which she was grateful for, even if it was addressing the completely wrong problem), Star remained unsure, and she was certain that showed on her face. 

“Besides, you’ve got plenty of time before that happens, right?” Marco offered.

Now those words were truly comforting, even if he didn’t understand why. He may have been talking about the issue of her becoming Queen, but Star was quick to realize that they could easily apply to her current situation as well. 

It was going to be more than half a year before the baby came and she actually had to worry about all of those things. 

Sure, she knew she’d have to think about those things eventually, but that wasn’t going to be for quite a while, so why make herself so upset by worrying about it long before she had to? 

“That is true,” she admitted to herself as the thought continued to churn around in her brain and her unsure expression melted away to a small – a small one, but a smile nonetheless. 

Relieved that she no longer had to worry about the distressing thoughts about the uncertainty of her future (at least for the time being), Star opened her arms in a silent invitation for a hug; something Marco was quick to accept, and the two of them embraced. 

After a few seconds, the hug ended, and the two stood side by side. 

“I guess I should probably be going” Tom said, turning to the balcony where his carriage was “parked.” 

He turned to Star and, with a sincere smile, said, “It was nice to see you again…even if I guess it wasn’t under the best circumstances.” 

With that, he floated into the carriage, which began to float downwards before vanishing in a pillar of flames that reached the dome of Star’s tower bedroom. 

Now that they were alone, Star turned to Marco and asked, in a curious tone, “So…you guys hung out?” 

Marco shrugged in response. “I guess, if you want to call it that. Honestly, once he calmed down a bit, he wasn’t that bad to hang out with” he informed. 

Star wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth or if he was just trying to make the whole thing sound better than it was, but she wasn’t going to press the issue. Instead, she just asked if he wanted to go see a movie, an offer he was pretty quick to accept. 

Normally she would have suggested a more thrilling adventure, but considering she knew that even hanging out with Tom could be…a bit of a stressful situation, she figured that it’d be best to stick with something that, while still fun, was a little more low-key. 

They made their way to the theater and, since the decision to go was kind of a last-minute decision, they basically just picked a random movie that was going to be starting soon. 

Unfortunately, the movie they ended up choosing wasn’t all that good – it was a weird horror and comedy mix that had some pretty poor acting and effects. 

Despite this, they had a great time; the movie wasn’t good, but it was bad in a way that made them laugh, more than a few times. In fact, they were still laughing a little as they made their way home. 

As they walked, they talked – first about just some general, fluffy stuff, but then the conversation started to take a bit of a turn. 

“Are you sure you’re doing okay?” Marco asked his friend, who looked at him with a look of slight confusion. At her silent question of what he was referring to, he decided to clarify. “Not just with the whole thing about Tom and what Mr. Candle said, but just in general?” 

Star smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. Like you said before, it’s going to be a long time before I have to worry about that stuff, so no sense in thinking about it right now” she said, waving her hand as though literally dismissing the thoughts away. 

“That’s…not exactly what I meant” the boy said, looking just a bit uncomfortable at his friend’s response. “I just meant that you maybe shouldn’t worry too much about it right now. Not that you shouldn’t think about it at all. Trust me, leaving things to the last minute is usually not a good ide-“ 

He was cut off by Star suddenly placing a hand on his mouth, abruptly ending his sentence in the middle of the word. 

The princess received an annoyed glare in response to his action, and removed her hand, apologizing as she did so. 

“Maybe that works sometimes, but trust me, Marco, with this, it’s best to just not think about it, at all” she told him as they continued to walk. “I mean, why think about something that’s going to make you upset when you could think about other things instead?”

Based on the expression that crossed his face, it was clear that Marco wasn’t entirely comfortable with what she had said, but he thankfully kept his thoughts to himself. 

For the next few moments, they walked along in silence, save for when Star began to hum an old song from Mewni after she started getting tired of the quiet. At one point, Marco did ask what the song was…but Star could only shrug in response. She knew it was an old Mewnian folk song (or maybe a lullaby), but while she knew the tune very well, she had long forgotten the lyrics or what they meant. The most she could remember is that she was pretty sure she had originally heard them in Ancient Mewnian, which meant the song was very, very old – no one had really used that language in hundreds of years, having long ago switched to using either the more modern form of the language or just speaking English. 

Still, she liked the way it sounded, and continued to hum to herself as they continued on their way home.

The movie had ended up being a little longer than they had expected, so by the time they made it back, it was already almost time for supper. Marco’s parents were waiting for them, his mother sitting on the couch reading a book while his father was doing some last minute touches to that night’s meal. 

“So, kids, how was the movie?” Angie asked the two teenagers as they got settled in. 

Marco had made sure to send his parents a text message when they were on their way to the cinema, claiming he didn’t want them to be wondering where the two of them were in they came home and found the house empty. 

“Not so good” Marco admitted, with Star nodding her agreement as she began to play around with her wand. 

While they waited for the food to be done cooking, the teenagers told the adults more about their experience at the theater – leaving out any major spoilers about the film, on the off-chance that maybe Rafael and Angie would be interested in seeing the movie for themselves at some point. 

“That’s too bad about the movie” Angie said once Star and Marco finished telling their story. “But, at least you had some fun, so it’s not like it was all bad.” 

“Yeah…I guess you’re right about that” Star said, continuing to fiddle around with her wand. The sudden – and by now, not at all unfamiliar – sound of a soft hum coming from the wand in her hand caused the princess to freeze in her action. 

Star tried to put the wand down as quickly as she could once she noticed this. She may not have known what the burst would result in; but that was probably reason enough to not want to risk it. She really didn’t want to mess up the house, or the delicious-smelling dinner Mr. Diaz was cooking, with a random spell that she had no control over. 

However, she also didn’t want to draw too much attention to what she was doing, because she didn’t want to have to deal with the possibility of questions being asked about her actions.

So, she had to try and stop the burst before it happened, while also being subtle about it. She wasn’t quite quick enough to figure out how to do this, and before she could get rid of the wand, it shot off the spell. 

As the light and energy shot out of the half-star crystal, the Diazes all jumped slightly at the sudden noise and flash of light, while Star herself just stiffened as she waited to see what had resulted from this particular burst. 

To her immense relief, it ended up being a fairly harmless summoning spell, and now Beanbag was standing in the living room. 

Well, it would be more accurate to say he was flopped over the edge of the coffee table, where he struggled to right himself for a few seconds before seeming to give up and relaxing as he just rested against the table, the lower part of his body hanging on the table while his upper half was slightly smooshed against the floor. 

Marco’s parents stared at the living beanbag for a few seconds, before returning their attention back to their book and food. Marco, on the other hand, wasn’t quite so quick to ignore the situation. 

“What’d you get Beanbag out for?” he asked his friend as he continued to watch as the spell-creature snored, wriggling his legs in his sleep. 

For a few seconds, Star struggled with trying to figure out a good explanation for why she’d apparently cast the spell. She knew she couldn’t just say that she hadn’t meant to summon him; even though her spells were often random enough that she could usually excuse away her magic bursts, by this point she was experienced enough with the wand that saying she’d just cast a spell without even thinking about it would probably result in asking for an explanation. 

And since she wasn’t quite up for coming up with an excuse – and she definitely wasn’t going to tell him the real reason – she had to come up with a reason why she would have summoned Beanbag presumably out of nowhere. 

Finally, she came up with an explanation that she thought would satisfy Marco’s curiosity.

“I was thinking about maybe eating out here tonight and eating on the floor – kind of like camping, but inside, I guess? But I sort of wanted to be a little more comfortable than when I used to go camping with my dad, so I figured I’d get Beanbag out, cause he likes to relax like that” Star said, silently praying that her explanation would be believed. She thought it sounded completely reasonable, but until she saw how her friend would react, the fear was still there. “Guess it didn’t quite work out that way…” 

A few seconds passed wherein Star could only wait and see whether Marco would believe her explanation for the sudden summoning. 

“Yeah, it really didn’t” he finally said, looking at where the spell-creature was snoozing. “But, maybe you should…put him back? Unless you still want to use him. I mean, technically him being asleep should really affect much when it comes to the reason you got him out.” 

“No, no, I’m fine – probably not a great idea to sit on someone who’s snoring like that” Star said, quickly holding up her wand and undoing the spell that had summon Beanbag, sending him back inside. 

Once that was taken care of, Star placed her wand on the table beside her. She was pretty sure she wouldn’t need it for a little while, and didn’t want to have to worry about the possibility of another magic burst; especially since she couldn’t be sure that the next one would be as easily explained away. 

It wasn’t much later that Mr. Diaz announced that the food was done, and the four of them gathered together at the table to eat. 

The food wasn’t anything fancy – basically just what seemed like a really thick soup served over some rice – but Star thought it smelled absolutely incredible. The smell was so enticing that she had to take a moment to remind herself to blow on it to help cool it down so she wouldn’t end up scalding her mouth when she took a bite. 

If the food smelled good, that was nothing compared to how it tasted; maybe it was partially because of the pregnancy making her a little more hungry that she normally would be, but Star wasn’t sure when the last time was that she had something that tasted this delicious. The moment she had finished what was in her mouth, she immediately began to eat more, taking a larger forkful now that she was sure she enjoyed the taste.

It tasted so good that she completely forgot about how hot it was…and quickly regretted just taking another bite, without cooling it down first. 

The instant the food touched her tongue, her brain exploded, practically screaming to let her know that it was too hot; so hot she could barely even taste her. 

Her initial reaction was to spit it out – to get rid of the cause of her discomfort as quickly as possible. But she couldn’t do that; that would be rude. 

So, instead she ignored what her mind was screaming and forced herself to swallow, barely being able to contain a wince as the steaming hot food went down. 

Thankfully, once her mouth was empty, she was able to grab her glass of juice and start drinking it. The cold juice alleviated the stinging in her mouth and throat somewhat, but it really wasn’t enough. 

By the time she was about halfway through with her glass, Star realized that even if she finished it, she would still need more before the burning sensation went away completely. 

Desperate to relieve the pain, she reached for her wand and thought up a quick spell as she aimed the crystal towards her open mouth. She had intended for it to just be a spray of some cold, soothing liquid to help cool down her mouth…but because of how her current condition was affecting her magic, that wasn’t exactly what she got. 

She did get some cool liquid in her mouth, but rather than being a spray, she ended up getting hit in the face with quite a bit more than she was expecting, the force being enough to briefly knock her head back before she had the presence of mind to stop the spell. Once that was over, she opened her mouth and was slightly surprised when a small fish fell out and landed on her hand. 

Star looked up and saw the Diazes all looking at her, their expressions a combination of surprise and concern. 

“Sorry about that” she said, chuckling nervously as she vanished the fish away. Looking down at the small puddles of water that were now on the floor by her chair, she added, “I’ll clean that up in a minute.” 

“Oh, you do not need to worry about that, Star. It’s just water – nothing harmful” Mr. Diaz assured the girl, literally waving the suggestion away with his hand. 

Star wasn’t sure if he meant what he was saying, or if he was just trying to make her feel better about the fact that her spell had made such a mess. What she did know was that he probably wouldn’t say it if he was actually upset, so she didn’t bother asking the question, though she continued to wonder. 

“We’re just…a little concerned, that’s all” Mrs. Diaz’s voice pulled Star out of her thoughts, and she looked at the older woman, silently asking her to continue. “Not about the floor – like Rafael said, that’s nothing to worry about. We just wanted to make sure you were okay, that’s all.” 

“Oh, yeah, yeah, I’m fine. The food was just really good, and I…kinda forgot how hot it was, so I sorta burned my mouth a little” Star explained, scratching her cheek a little in embarrassment. Saying this out loud made her realize that what she’d done had been kind of silly, even if she really couldn’t help it. 

She then realized that they were probably also wondering about the spell she’d just cast, and hurried to try and think of a reasonable explanation. “And I guess I kinda overdid it when I was trying to get myself something to drink. Next time I’ll just go to the fridge instead.” 

This seemed to satisfy the others at the table, and they went back to eating; though Marco took a moment to hand Star some paper towels before turning his attention back to his own meal. 

Star, thankful for the gesture, used the paper towels to try and dab herself dry. However, it didn’t work so well (it helped a little, though her hair and clothes were still fairly damp) and she considered excusing herself so she could go up in her room to dry off a little bit better. 

She was planning on using her magic so it’d be quick, but she also didn’t want to risk the spell going awry in front of everyone again. After all, knowing her luck, the next time would not be so easily explained away. 

But, apparently a certain someone had other plans, since as soon as she was about to excuse herself, her stomach growled – rather loudly. 

This made the princess realize that she was actually kind of hungry; and since the meal tasted so good, why not at least finish the serving she currently had? Or, at least, it seemed like she was going to have to do that, in order to satisfy what was undoubtedly a sudden craving. 

Well, she thought to herself as she began eating again, at least it did taste really good, so she’d enjoy eating it. Still, she did try to finish up as quickly as she could (while also avoiding scalding her mouth again); wet clothes were not the most comfortable thing to sit around and eat in, after all. She quickly finished her bowl and excused herself, taking a brief moment to compliment Mr. Diaz once more on the meal before running upstairs to her room. 

Instead of just drying off her clothes – like she originally planned to do – she instead just decided to change into her pajamas. 

Upon getting upstairs, it dawned on her that it was starting to get a little late, and it wasn’t likely that any of them would be doing anything all that fun between now and when they all usually went to bed. So, Star figured she may as well make herself comfortable a little early. 

She did use her magic to help dry her hair, which – thankfully – went off without any issue, despite her fears regarding another possible burst.

There was a part of her that regretted not being able to do more fun things that day (though it was still really fun to go to the movies, even if the movie itself was pretty bad), but she cheered herself up by remembering that the weekend was only two days away; and the weekend meant two days where she and Marco could do pretty much anything they wanted, without having to worry about school getting in the way of their fun. 

Sure, she wished it would come sooner, but now she had a couple of days to think of some ideas of what they could do and where they could go for one of their little weekend adventures. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

The remainder of the week passed without much fanfare; the most interesting thing was the fact that they had a quiz in Miss Skullnick’s math class on Friday. Other than that, each day was basically the same as normal…which meant they were honestly a little boring. 

Not that this really mattered to Star. In her mind, the only thing that was worth thinking about was that the weekend was here, and that meant two whole days where she and Marco could have as much fun as they wanted! 

“I’ve got a great idea” Star announced, skipping with joy as she and Marco made their way home from the bus stop. “You wanna hear it?” 

“…Yeah, sounds great” Marco responded, returning the smile but not seeming quite as enthusiastic as Star was. 

She didn’t take this personally; she knew that he’d probably be a lot more excited when she actually told him what her idea was. Plus, he was probably still dealing with the residual boredom from school, which she knew from personal experience never helped with your mood. 

Still, she figured that he would be cheered up by her suggestion, and thus kept up her own excited attitude. 

“Well, last night I was skimming through this little book that names all these different dimensions that I got from own of my aunts a couple of years ago on my birthday – cause I wanted to see if there were any places that sounded like fun that we haven’t been to yet. And there was this one place that sounded really cool – the Bumper Dimension. So, I decided to skim through my spell book real quick, to see if maybe one of my old grandmas had been there before. Turns out my great-great-great-great-great-great-you get the idea, she lived a super long time ago- Grandma Cloudette went there one time with her husband before they got married” she paused briefly in her rapid-fire speech to make sure Marco was both paying attention and understood what she was saying, before continuing with her story. “So, apparently this is a dimension where almost everything is like a giant bounce house – if you fall or bump into literally anything, you just start bouncing. Sounds great, huh?” 

Star took a moment to allow for her friend to take in what she’d just said, and to see how he responded to her description of this new dimension. Personally, she thought it sounded amazing; and it didn’t sound like there was anything super dangerous there, so she figured it’d be a good place to go to just have fun. 

Not that she minded a little danger once in a while (she was actually kind of missing fighting Ludo and his monsters), but sometimes it was nice to just be able to have some fun that didn’t involve doing things like fighting or getting into dangerous situations. 

Plus, it really hadn’t been all that long since the situation in the Sandwich Dimension, and she figured that after that adventure, Marco might prefer something different for their first real outing since that day. 

To her slight surprise, he seemed a little unsure and unwilling to answer her question. It was only upon her prompting him once more than he actually spoke. 

“That does sound pretty fun, but…maybe we should go a little later? It doesn’t exactly sound like the best place to go right after eating lunch” he said. 

There was a part of Star that wanted to point out that they hadn’t just eaten lunch – that had been almost two hours ago – but since she understood what he meant, she didn’t say anything. Instead, she just nodded and they continued on their way home. 

She was a little upset that they weren’t going to the Bumper Dimension right away, but cheered herself by thinking about how they’d be able to go soon and how much fun they were sure to have once they got there. 

In the meantime, she had some time to kill. 

Her first instinct was to see if Marco wanted to go out and do something, but she reluctantly decided against it for the time being. Not only would they be going to do something really fun pretty soon, but they actually had another test in history class on Monday morning, and she knew that Marco liked to study for those kinds of things. 

So, she figured she could let him study for the test while she found some other way to spend her time until they were both ready to go visit the Bumper Dimension. 

For a moment, she was at a loss of what she was supposed to do…until she remembered the promise she’d made after her scare – the promise to study her book of spells a little more, so she could maybe learn more about how her pregnancy was supposed to work. 

While Marco went into the kitchen to grab something to snack on while he studied, Star went upstairs to her bedroom. 

“Hey, Glossaryck?” she called as she stepped inside. “Can you help me with something?” 

She knew it would be a toss-up as to whether or not he’d actually respond to the question – her experience with dipping down had made her realize that being helpful wasn’t really high on her mentor’s list of priorities – but she figured it wouldn’t do any harm to try and get his attention that way. 

After a few moments of there being no response, the Book of Spells suddenly slid out from under it’s usual storage space, underneath Star’s bed. It unlocked and opened itself, rapidly flipping through the pages until it came to where Glossaryck was apparently resting. Or, at least, that’s what Star assumed he had been doing before she called him. She never really could tell with Glossaryck. 

“Maybe…depends on what it is you need help with” the little blue man said, floating upwards until he was at eye level with Star. He clearly wasn’t all that interested in whatever it was Star wanted; though, considering that seemed to be his default attitude whenever Star actually tried to ask him for help, she didn’t really think too much of it. 

Instead, she just decided to get to the point. 

“I was wondering if you could teach me about some stuff in the spell book” she explained, motioning at said book as though that would help with the request. “You know, maybe some new spells or just some history about my family…that sort of thing.” 

“Of course I could” Glossaryck said simply.

Star couldn’t help but feel both excited and surprised at how quick he seemed to be to agree to her request. Normally it seemed like her mentor thought that part of his job was to be as unhelpful as possible, so it was a pleasant surprise for him to be willing to actually help her with something. 

However, her feelings instantly changed when he continued his statement: “But, I won’t.” 

Before Star could actually say anything, Glossaryck literally disappeared into the book, flipping the pages until the cover slammed shut. 

“Wait…why?” she demanded, dropping to her knees and trying to force the book open. 

After a few attempts at forcing it open, the book did so on its own, and flipped to a random page in the middle, out of which Glossaryck floated. 

Rather than answer the question posed at him, he just looked at the princess in silence, which added to her frustration towards him. 

“You’re supposed to be my teacher, aren’t you? Shouldn’t you be teaching me stuff? Especially when I’m actually asking to learn the stuff you’re supposed to be teaching me?” she demanded, trying to stay calm, but be well aware that this attempt was failing. 

However, if Glossaryck’s lack of reaction was any indication, he didn’t even notice how frustrated his student was getting. He just stayed silent for a moment, his expression completely neutral, before letting out a small, non-committal sound, and nodding his head slightly. 

“Okay, so, you’re not exactly wrong about that” he admitted, nodding his head once again. “But…well, it’s not time for you to learn that stuff yet. And no, it really doesn’t matter if you want to learn it already – it’s not like you can tell your teachers at the Earth school when to teach you something, right?” 

“Well, no, I can’t, but this is…this is different! School and magic are not the same thing at all!” Star was getting more and more frustrated with this conversation. 

The longer it went on, the more she was torn between trying to convince Glossaryck to see things her way and just admitting to herself that trying to get him to listen to her was a lost cause. 

“The two of them are very different, yes. But not when it comes to this” Glossaryck said before once again floating back into the book and closing it once more. 

This time Star could hear the sound of a latch being locked and she sighed, no longer even trying to hide her frustration. After all, she was basically alone, so why bother hiding it? 

“You are literally the most unhelpful person in the universe, you know that?” she muttered angrily, glaring at her closed book. She didn’t get any response, and she didn’t really expect one; she just wanted to vent her frustration a little bit. 

After waiting a few seconds to see if maybe Glossaryck would respond, she gave up and decided to just go and hang out with Marco for a bit while she waited until he was ready to leave. 

Before she did that, however, she went down to the kitchen, wanting to find something to munch on; specifically, she was looking for Cornritos corn chips. 

“Okay, where are you?” she muttered to herself as she looked for a bag of chips. “I know you’re in here somewhere, Cornritos – we just got you yesterday. You can’t hide forever….” 

Star continued to look through the cabinet, trying to find the corn chips, but having no luck. With every passing moment, both her frustration and her hunger were mounting. 

“Where are you, you stupid corn chips?!” Star cried, pulling out several containers to see if maybe the chip bag had been shoved behind them, but finding nothing. 

She considered just eating something from one of the containers she’d taken out (and there was plenty of snacks she liked to eat, including some frosted brownies with little candies and cream-filled cupcakes) to try and satisfy her hunger; but, considering how much she specifically wanted to eat the Cornritos, she knew this was most likely a craving, meaning she wouldn’t really be satisfied until she had some. The only problem was actually _finding_ the things! 

By this time, Star had practically cleared out the cabinet and had no luck finding the coveted chips; which made no sense, as she was positive there was still some left; she hadn’t been wrong when she said they’d just been bought yesterday, and there was no way they were already gone. 

Finally, after having no luck finding the chips, the princess decided to try and do this the easy way – with magic. 

“Corn chip catastrophe!” she cried out, lifting up her wand and holding it out in front of her. 

Besides just wanting to get the chips as quickly as possible, Star also figured that if she cast the spell while she was taking out her wand, then that would prevent her from having a magic burst before she could try and actually perform the spell she wanted. 

The good news was that she was able to cast the spell. The bad news was that it didn’t turn out quite the way she wanted. 

The spell was supposed to just summon a bunch of corn chips that she could eat – and that would hopefully satisfy her craving. And it did succeed in doing that…but instead of the chips just being regular chips, it seemed like the spell had basically created what looked like butterflies made out of triangular corn chips, which were currently fluttering around the kitchen at random, seeming to have no sense of direction or any indication that they were sentient at all. 

After just watching the chip-flies flap around for a few seconds, Star just shrugged. 

“Well, might as well try one” she said to herself, reaching up to grab one of the magically-created food…creatures. She thought she felt a slight shudder as her hand closed around the thing, but when she open her hand, the chip-fly seemed to have just turned into a couple of regular corn chips. 

Without another thought, Star grabbed one of the chips and took a bite. Almost immediately after, she spat the thing out, sputtering as she attempted to literally wipe the taste off her tongue. 

“Oh, that was so nasty” she said in a disgusted tone of voice.“I gotta stop eating spell-food.” 

She lifted her wand and undid the spell, causing the remainder of the corn chip butterflies to vanish from existence, presumably going to wherever her spells went whenever she was done with them. 

Now she was in a difficult position of still craving some Cornritos, but having none to eat. 

For a moment, she considered just trying to ignore her desire for the chips – and possibly just going to the Bumper Dimension to have a distraction – but her stomach growling mere seconds after she considered the thought made her realize that probably wasn’t going to be possible. Though, this now meant that she had to try and satisfy the craving, when she couldn’t find any of the stuff she wanted to eat. 

“Maybe Marco knows what happened to them…” Star muttered to herself as she performed a quick spell to put everything back into the cabinets, before going back upstairs to ask her friend about the whereabouts of her snack. 

She went to his room and knocked on the door, asking, “Marco? Can I come in?” 

After waiting for a second to see if he’d protest, she just opened the door for herself, figuring he’d have said something if he had a problem with her coming into the room. 

Considering his reaction of letting out a slightly surprised noise as she came into his room, it appeared that her assumption wasn’t quite correct, but Star ignored it for the time being; she had something else on her mind. 

“Sorry to bug you like this, but do you know where the Cornritos are? I really wanted some and I know we still have some left, but I looked all over the kitchen and couldn’t find any…” she explained her situation, trailing off as she noticed a certain bag sitting open on his desk. 

Marco seemed to notice where her eyes were going, and followed her gaze.

“I’m really sorry about that” he said, picking up the bag of chips with a faint blush forming on his face. “I really should have asked if you wanted any before I just took the bag. Guess I just wasn’t thinking.” 

He held out the bag to her, saying that there were still plenty left, as he’d only eaten a couple. Star barely paid attention to what he was saying, her focus being almost entirely centered on the Cornritos that he was holding out to her. 

“Yeah, okay, thanks,” she said in a distracted-sounding voice as she took the bag from him. As soon as she had her prize, she reached into the bag, pulled out a chip, and tossed it into her open mouth. 

Star could help but let out a noise that was something between a sigh of relief and a tiny moan of joy as she finally got to actually eat one of the Cornritos she’d been looking for. 

Thankfully, it didn’t take too many of the things to satisfy her craving, so she was able to stop eating them before she had to worry about the possibility of Marco getting suspicious over how much she was eating at once. Not that he would have said anything about it; he was too polite to make any sort of comment about something like that. 

Still, she didn’t want to make him suspicious about anything if she could do anything to prevent that from happening. After finishing with her snack, she rolled the bag closed and placed it back on her friend’s desk, before plopping herself down on his bed.

“So, how’s the studying going?” she asked, more out of a desire to start a conversation than anything else. 

“It’s going alright” Marco replied, turning away from the open book on his desk. “I’m going to make sure to look the material over again a couple of times over the weekend, but I think I’ll be all set to take the quiz on Monday.” 

Star nodded in response while making herself more comfortable on bed; not a difficult task, considering it was already a pretty comfortable place to rest. 

“That’s good…So, are you almost ready to go?” she asked suddenly. 

Marco didn’t say anything, but the look on his face made it very clear that he was wondering what she was talking about. Star couldn’t help but get just a little irritated at this – did he really forget already? 

“To go to the Bumper Dimension?” she asked, trying to prompt him to remember the conversation they’d had on the way home from school. “You said you wanted to go there, remember?” 

This was apparently all Marco needed to hear, as his expression changed to one of realization when Star mentioned the name of the dimension she wanted to visit.

“Oh, yeah, I remember” he said. He thought for a few seconds, apparently trying to decide whether or not he was ready to leave, before finally concluding, “Yeah, I guess I’m all set. But…promise we can leave if things start getting too crazy?”

“Promise” Star said, holding up her pinky finger – a gesture she’d learned was apparently meant to symbolize making a promise to someone. 

The princess then leapt off the bed and pulled out her dimensional scissors, happily exclaiming,

“Alrighty then – let’s get going” as she did so. She cut open a portal to the Bumper Dimension, then whipped herself around to grab Marco by the hands and pull him up from his seat. 

“Wait – we’re going right now?” Marco asked, unable to keep himself from letting out a little yelp of surprise as his friend yank him into a standing position. 

“Well, yeah,” Star responded, looking like she didn’t understand why he was asking. “I mean, if we’re both ready to go, why wait?”

Marco didn’t seem to have anything to say against her statement. 

So, about a second later, the two of them stepped through the portal, which closed behind them; and a few seconds later, they came out of another portal, arriving at their destination. 

To their surprise, the place didn’t really look all that different from Earth, outside of a few very subtle differences, such as the tree trunks and sidewalk appearing to be made of some kind of vinyl, making them smooth instead of rough.

“May I be of assistance?” a voice came from behind, startling the two teens, who immediately prepared themselves for a fight, turning around to face whoever had just snuck up on them. 

However, it was at this moment that it became apparent they weren’t completely prepared for the unique properties of this particular dimension. As the Mewnian and the Earthling turned around, the ground seemed to push against them, causing them to lose their footing and fall backwards. Thankfully, before they could actually hit the ground (and presumably start a cycle of bouncing), something came up from behind and caught them. 

“Well, it appears I have answered my own question” said the same voice from before, once again from behind them – despite their change in position. 

“Who are you?” Marco asked, craning his head so he could look at whoever was talking to them. Star was also trying to get a gander at them, but wasn’t having much luck with that. 

“Oh, forgive me – I suppose I should introduce myself” the voice said, before a small creature that looked vaguely like a combination of a balloon and a sheep, dressed in a suit and wearing a pair of glasses appeared in front of them, extending what looked like a hand made of strings in greeting. “My name is Bouncewick Boundington. I am the Mayor of his fine city, and it is my duty to ensure that all guests are properly prepared for their visits – meaning they must be fitting with stabilizers to ensure a safe trip.” 

Star and Marco said hello to Bouncewick and shook his hand, before asking him what he meant by stabilizers.

Rather than directly answer their question, the Mayor reached into an inside pocket of his suit jacket, pulling out what look rubber bracelets decorated with tiny stones and beads put into intricate designs. 

“These are stabilizers” Bouncewick explained, floating upwards and putting the bracelets on Star and Marco’s wrists. “If you decide you want to stop bouncing, just tap the big red stone in the center and the device will take care of the rest. And now that you’re both all settled in and ready to go, I must return to my post. Good day, my dears, and please, enjoy your stay.” 

Star couldn’t help but admire the device on her wrist – it was rather pretty to look at, and what it did was also pretty cool. And, now that they were all set, she was eager to start taking advantage of the whole reason they’d come to this dimension. 

“C’mon, Marco, let’s get bouncing!” she exclaimed, rushing over and slamming into a nearby tree, which seemed to give in to her weight, before pushing back and sending her flying into the ground, which also bounced her upwards. This quickly set off a chain reaction, where she continued to rebound off different objects. 

Marco watched the whole thing with a concerned look on his face, which only went away when he realized that the cries coming from his friend’s mouth were cries of delight, rather than pain or fear. Once those worries were put to rest, he began to join in on the fun, albeit much more cautiously than Star had done. 

At first, it was clear that he wasn’t quite sure what to think of the experience, but after a few moments, he was having the time of his life as well. 

And for the next couple of hours, the two of them just jumped and bounced around, occasionally making bets with one another regarding things like aiming their rebounds and heights of their jumps. 

They finally decided to end the fun – and, by extension, the visit – when they barely avoided slamming into each other after a miscalculated angle. 

Pressing the stones on their stabilizers as they had been instructed, the two teens found themselves able to stand on the ground without any issue; apparently the devices made it so the ground was like regular solid ground for them, rather than being bouncy. 

“That was amazing” Marco said through a laugh a few minutes later, as they stepped through a portal into his bedroom. 

Star was also chuckling slightly to herself – the result of the leftover energy caused by their recent adventure – as she gave her response: a slightly bragging, “I told you it was going to be fun, didn’t I? And we didn’t even get sick once, so we could’ve gone even sooner.” 

Technically that was kind of a lie, since she did have a moment where she almost got sick during their trip. But, she wasn’t going to count that, because not only did she not actually get sick, but she was pretty sure that was just a bit of morning sickness, rather than being caused by the bouncing – meaning her point was still valid. 

Marco admitted that she had been right, and then sat down on his bed, starting to pant a little as the adrenaline from early began to fade and give way to tiredness.

“You wanna take a break for a bit?” Star asked, watching her friend as he leaned back against the headboard of his bed. 

“Yeah…I think that might be a good idea” Marco admitted after a moment of consideration.

In response, Star just nodded and exited the room, closing the door behind her as she left. Though, now she had the problem of figuring out what she was supposed to do while Marco was sleeping…

She wasn’t going to keep him awake just so she could be entertained; she knew what it was like to need some sleep and not be able to get it for whatever reason; but, at the same time, it was hard to think of something fun to do by herself. 

For a moment, she briefly considered going to Glossaryck again – to see if maybe he’d changed his mind about teaching her some new spells and other stuff from the book. But, almost as soon as she considered the idea, she realized it was most likely going to be a pointless endeavor and decided not to even try it. 

She was starting to worry about the possibility of facing true boredom when she realized that even though Marco was asleep, that didn’t mean she couldn’t spend some time with her friends. 

Running downstairs so she wouldn’t have to worry about waking her sleeping friend, Star pulled out her compact and hit the button that would immediately dial Pony Head’s number; and after about a second of ringing, the other line picked up, with the screen changing to reveal her oldest best friend. 

“Hey B-Fly! What’s up, girl? Feels like it’s been forever since we saw each other” Pony Head exclaimed pretty much the instant she picked up. In truth, it hadn’t been that long since the last time they talked – Star had actually given Pony Head a call a few days ago, though it’d only lasted a few minutes – but Star wasn’t going to say anything about that. Right now, she just wanted to have fun chatting with her friend. 

“Yeah, I know” Star said, lying down on the couch so she could be more comfortable while talked. “Sorry about that – things have been kinda crazy lately. You know…fighting monsters, going to school…that kinda stuff.” 

“Not to mention you blowing up that old monster castle” Pony Head said. 

This statement made Star freeze – how did Pony Head know about that? Well, she wasn’t too confused as to how she knew that the castle had been destroyed – that was probably common knowledge, especially by now – but she did want to know how the ponyhead princess knew she had been involved with the destruction. She voiced his question to Pony Head, who seemed quite surprised to hear it. 

“Yeah, well, I didn’t actually know it was you, actually. But, you know, I kinda figured you probably had something to do with it ‘cause, you know, it’s all about fighting monsters and explosions and everything like that, and that is so you, B-fly” Pony Head said. “Only thing I don’t get is what you were doing in that nasty place in the first place, and how you blew it up. I didn’t think you had any spells that could do something like that in that wand of yours.”

Letting out a sigh, Star became to recap the events of that day to her friend, telling her everything from the fight she and Marco had to how she’d used the Whispering Spell to destroy not only her wand, but also the castle. 

As she finished her story, she said, “I’m just glad I got my new wand – I don’t know what my parents would have done to me if it was gone for good, but I know it wouldn’t be good.” 

She held up her new wand to show Pony Head, who seemed to momentarily marvel and the new design. 

“Hey, if you get an upgrade to that thing whenever you break it, maybe you should do that Whispering Spell more often” she commented. 

Apparently the horrified feeling Star felt at this suggestion was apparent in her expression, as almost immediately after this, the other princess quickly backpedaled on her previous statement, instead insisting that she had been joking. 

Star chuckled a little at this, though even she knew it was probably not the most convincing. Eager to get off the topic of her breaking her wand, she decided to change the subject. “So…what’ve you been up to since the last time we talked?” 

“Glad you asked, B-Fly” Pony Head replied with a grin. “I wanted to show you something, so check this out.” 

She briefly dipped out of view of the phone’s screen, coming up a second later with another compact mirror phone floating by her head. 

Star was about to ask where she’d gotten the second phone from, but before she could actually ask the question, she basically got her answer. 

“Pony Head! Gimme back my phone!” 

Star could recognize the voice as one of Pony Head’s youngest sisters, but she couldn’t quite place who it was. Well, she did know it probably wasn’t the actual baby of the Ponyhead family, since she was still too young to be talking that well. 

On Star’s screen, Pony Head just rolled her eyes and let out an annoyed grunt before turning to face whichever of her sisters had just been talking. 

“Stop complaining about dumb stuff, Whistine, and go bug the twins or something. Besides I’m just using your phone so I can show Star that video that Seahorse made for me, which is obviously so much more important than anything you were doing with it, right? Yeah, you know I’m right. Don’t even know why Daddy gave you a phone – you’re like five. And not like you do anything interesting, anyway” Pony Head told her sister, who apparently left the room, if the sound of the closing door and Pony Head’s satisfied look was any indication. 

She turned back to Star, opening up Whistine’s phone and pressed a few buttons until the screen showed what looked like a still-frame of a video. Before the Butterfly princess could say anything else, her friend pressed the button to play the video. 

It wasn’t much to look at: basically just a huge purple seahorse screaming angrily into a microphone while he first played and then smashed a guitar, ending with him picking up the microphone stand and snapping it over his tail. The video froze on the last image as it came to an end, and Star was left wondering how she was supposed to respond to what she’d just been shown. 

Finally, she said, in a slightly uncertain voice, “That was…nice?” 

“Yeah, I know – Seahorse is such a romantic, isn’t he? That was a song he wrote for me, just so you know what that was all about” Pony Head said, seeming not to catch onto her friend’s clearly mixed feelings about what she had just been shown. 

Upon hearing this, Star immediately perked up. 

“You got a new boyfriend?” she asked, her eyes sparkling with excitement at this new revelation. “That is so amazing! When did you guys start going out, and when I can come and meet him?” 

“Actually we broke up yesterday. You know me, B-Fly, no one can handle being with someone as great as me for too long. I just wanted to show you that video ‘cause it’s still pretty nice, even if Seahorse couldn’t handle me, either. Besides, how cool is it that I got a song made for me? Yeah, you know it’s super cool” Pony Head responded, not seeming to pay even the slightest bit of attention to how Star was actually reacting to what she was saying. 

Though, if she was being perfectly honest, Star had to admit that she wasn’t too surprised to learn that Pony Head had started dating this Seahorse person and already broken up with him by now. 

After all, it wouldn’t have been the first time her friend had done something like this. Heck, Star could remember one time, about a year ago, when Pony Head had started dating a guy and literally broken up with him about three hours later – now that had almost been surprising; Star didn’t think even Pony Head would get bored with a relationship that fast. 

After that, the two friends just continued to talk for a while. They didn’t discuss anything important – just had some fun chatting about whatever happened to come to either of their minds. Which, honestly, was all Star really wanted to do, so by the end, she was very happy to have given Pony Head a call. 

She was even more happy to take Pony Head up on her offer to hang out sometime; especially since, though they had talked not that long ago, they hadn’t really had a chance to really hang out together since Star and Marco helped Pony Head get out of…that place. 

“That sounds like so much fun” Star squealed as Pony Head suggested they go to the Bounce Lounge sometime soon. 

Pony Head seemed to share that sentiment and said her goodbyes before turning off the phone, leaving Star’s screen in static for a few seconds before it finally went blank. 

Despite realizing that she now was back to not really having much to do until Marco woke up, Star smiled as she closed her compact. 

Maybe she was just a little bored at the moment, but she was also kind of happy, since now she had something to look forward to: going to the Bounce Longue with Pony Head (and maybe Marco, too, if he wanted to come along). 

And best of all, Star knew it was probably going to be a surprise when they were going to go, which meant it was going to be even more fun than if they had really planned the whole thing out. Surprises always made things more fun. 

“Well…almost always” Star admitted to herself, thinking back on the many surprises she’d gotten as a result of her magic going crazy lately – not all of which she’d say were all that fun. 

Still, she wasn’t going to let that get her down. Instead, she was just going to focus on the joyful anticipation she was feeling. Now the only bad thing was going to be having to wait for however long it ended up being before Pony Head would actually decide they should go. 

Star could only hope it wouldn’t be too long…but she was sure that even if she was waiting for a while, she could find plenty of ways to have fun until then. 

After all, it wasn’t like that had ever really been an issue in the past…and now her life was probably more interesting than ever, meaning finding things to occupy her time would be super easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I guess I follow up a relatively shorter chapter with another fairly long one. Though, at this point, I'm going to make it pretty clear that I'm not really going to be super consistent with the lengths of these chapters. I will try to meet a bit of a minimum length for each chapter (though even that will have a bit of a range of how long it "needs" to be), but ultimately, each chapter will be as long as I think it needs to be to get through what I want to show in that chapter.
> 
> I know I said Star was going to get to have some fun in the next couple of chapters...and I wasn't lying. However, just because she's getting to do some fun stuff doesn't mean she doesn't still have to deal with some difficult thoughts and other challenges involving her situation, or just life in general. Heck, next time she's going to get to have her first taste of what parenthood is actually going to be like...which we know is going to be both fun and challenging.
> 
> And before anyone asks, yes, I know that Cloudette Butterfly is not a canon character, and that we have been given the names of the 13 Queens of Mewni already. However, I am one of those people who believes that there were a decent amount of Queens who ruled before Eclipsa's mother, and I imagine Cloudette to be one of those ancestral Butterflies.
> 
> Also, I just couldn't resist the idea of having a Butterfly who had a name that was basically a real life name (Claudette) made into a pun to fit the usual naming convention that the Butterflies have, where most of their children (or, at least, their heirs) have names that relate to the sky or space in some way.


	7. Chapter 7

It was early in the morning, on one of the rare weekdays that they had off from school, when Star felt someone lightly slapping her arm, obviously in an attempt to get her to wake up. Considering how early it was – combined with the facts that she didn’t have to get up for school, and that she’d stayed up late because of this – she was quite reluctant to see what it was that whoever was in her room wanted. 

Surely whatever it was, it could wait a couple of hours…Or possibly longer; Star really wanted to sleep in for a bit that day. 

Apparently the other person didn’t agree, as the slaps not only didn’t go away – they got a little harder. 

“Marco” Star groaned, still keeping her eyes shut as she rolled over in an attempt to get away from the attempt to get her out of bed. “We don’t even have school today. Just let me sleep a little longer, okay?”

“And here I thought you wanted to learn some new magic…But, I guess I was wrong. Oh, well, sleep tight.” 

The sound of her mentor’s voice was enough to instantly pull Star out of the fog of sleep that she’d been in; mostly out of sheer confusion. In less than a second, the princess went from lying on her side to sitting straight up in bed, turning her head to face the direction of the blue man’s voice. 

“Glossaryck?” she asked, rubbing her eyes to make certain her vision was clear. “What are you doing here?” 

Glossaryck paused on his way to where the Book of Spells was laying open on the floor. He didn’t turn to face Star, but he did turn his head to look over his shoulder so she knew he had both heard her question and was going to answer it. 

“The last time I checked, I lived here, too” he said simply. 

“No, I meant,” Star began, somewhat reluctantly turning so she could get out of bed, “what are you doing getting me up so early? I’m not sure if I told you, but we don’t have school today. Marco said there was something the teachers had to do, so we get the day off this time.”

For a moment, it seemed like Glossaryck was honestly thinking about what she’d just said. Another minute passed in silence, with the two of them just looking at each other, Glossaryck now turned so he was properly facing his student. 

By the time they were approaching the third minute of silence, Star was beginning to feel like she was about to go crazy, and was literally using all of her will power to keep from screaming at the little blue man floating in front of her. Thankfully, before she could pass her limit of patience, Glossaryck finally spoke up. 

“Yes, but I thought you wanted to learn some new spells and some of your family history” he said, nodding his head towards where the book was lying on the floor, open to a supposedly random page. 

For a few seconds, Star was almost too surprised to say anything. Yes, she had said she wanted to look at her spell book, but that had been almost two weeks ago; she didn’t think that Glossaryck had remembered the request; nor did she expect that he’d actually take her up on it. Knowing him, she figured he’d have just forgotten about it completely by now. 

Part of her was almost excited to see that he not only remembered her request, but also seemed willing to fulfill it. The other part, however…

”I do…but can’t I do it later? It’s too early to learn stuff” she said, flopping down so she was once again lying on her bed. 

“Perhaps…” Glossaryck replied, rubbing his beard as he seemed to think. “But, you know, I might not be up to teaching later. Ultimately, it’s up to you, though. I’ve learned long ago that if a princess doesn’t want to learn, trying to force her isn’t going to do me any good. So, if you want to go back to bed…” 

Star let out a frustrated noise as she forced herself to sit up once again. 

She turned to her mentor and gave him a brief glare, as well as directing the same noise at him. 

“You are the worst, Glossaryck. _The actual worst_ ” she told him, her eyes still narrowed and venom practically dripping off her words. Star didn’t actually mean that, but she was tired and she didn’t exactly like it when Glossaryck did this sort of thing even when she was awake. 

She’d apologize later, after she’d gotten some more sleep. Then again, considering this was Glossaryck…she wasn’t sure if she’d need to say she was sorry for what she said; it didn’t look like he was even paying attention to what she’d just said, if his lack of reaction was any indication. 

The princess reluctantly got out of bed – reaching under her pillow to grab her wand as she got up - and trudged over to where the spell book was sitting open on the floor, plopping down in front of it. 

“Okay, so what spell are you gonna teach me first?” she asked Glossaryck, who was currently floating right in front of her face.

She yawned, stretching her back to help loosen up her muscles, as she waited for an answer. 

While she awaited an answer, Star placed her wand on the floor besides her; she figured she wouldn’t need to hold it until the lesson began, and she really wasn’t in the mood to deal with any magic bursts she could end up experiencing. 

“I don’t know” Glossaryck said with a shrug of his shoulders. Star literally fell over at that. 

“What?!” she shouted, momentarily forgetting that it was still early, which meant that the Diazes were probably still asleep. That realization hit her a second later, and she quickly covered her mouth, her cheeks burning so hotly that she was sure they were practically glowing. 

After waiting a moment to make sure she hadn’t awoken anyone else in the house, she continued, this time making sure her volume was much lower. 

“You made me wake up early – on a day I was supposed to be able to sleep in – to teach me something from my spell book…and now you don’t even have anything to teach me?” 

“I didn’t say that” Glossaryck replied calmly. “I just said that I didn’t know exactly what I was going to teach you. I thought I’d let you decide that for yourself.” 

“Oh…okay…I guess that’s fine” Star said, calming down significantly. 

There was a part of her that wanted to ask why he didn’t just say so in the first place, but as soon as the thought came to her mind, she dismissed it. Directly asking Glossaryck for an explanation was only going to lead to frustration, and she was honestly too tired to really care. 

“So, you want me to just pick a spell, and you’ll teach it to me?” she asked, somewhat hesitantly reaching over and grabbing the corner of one of the pages. 

The little blue man nodded, and then raised his hand in what seemed to be a brief wave, before started to float towards the door.

Once again, Star was confused as to what he was doing. She voiced this confusion, and Glossaryck paused in front of the door, turning around on the spot so he could face her. 

“Well, you don’t really need me here while you look for a spell to practice, do you?” he asked, not waiting for a response before continuing. “I’m just going to see if there’s any decent pudding in this place. Just flip through the book while I’m gone, and try and find a spell you want to work on.” 

Without another word, he turned back around and, rather than actually open the door, just squeezed himself through the keyhole.

For a brief moment, Star could only stare at the door that Glossaryck had gone through. Then, all of a sudden, it hit her – this was the perfect opportunity to see if any of her grandmas had written anything that would help her learn more about her pregnancy! 

She had been trying to figure out how she’d be able to look for that kind of stuff while Glossaryck was around, and right now, she didn’t even have to worry about that. 

The only issue was that she had no idea how long he’d be gone for, and with how fuzzy her brain still was from sleep, she wasn’t entirely sure how good she’d be at coming up with an excuse if he came back and caught her…

”Guess I just gotta be quick about it” she muttered to herself as she started flipping through the pages of the book. That wasn’t going to be a problem; she just had to utilize her talent of skimming to find what she was looking for. 

Star continued to rapidly flip through the pages of her spell book, scanning the pages for any words that looked like they would be of any use to her. 

After a few moments of this and finding no results, she started to wonder if maybe her assumption was wrong and there wouldn’t be any helpful information in the books.

But, just when she was about to give up and just look for a spell like Glossaryck had said, something caught her eye as she flipped past a page. 

She quickly turned back to the page she’d just passed, and gave the passage a very quick skim, smiling when she saw it did contain some of the information she was searching for. 

It wasn’t going to be much – it was only a few sentences, after all – but considering she knew basically nothing about her current situation, literally anything was better than what she already had. Star took a moment to glance at the door, making sure that Glossaryck didn’t decide to not bother looking for his pudding, before turning her attention back to the book. 

“Okay, now, let’s just get a little more…” she muttered to herself as she changed her position so she was lying on her stomach in front of the book. “There.”

It wasn’t the most comfortable position (she was still on the floor, after all), but it still felt nice to lie down, even if she couldn’t go back to sleep until the lesson was done. 

Then she remembered her wand, still sitting on the floor beside her. Star reached for it, and then paused, wondering if being more comfortable was worth the risk of a magic burst possibly alerting Glossaryck and summoning him back into the room before she could read the entry and get the information she was looking for. 

“Yeah, it is” she finally decided, picking up her wand and getting ready to do a spell. She just had to figure out exactly what she wanted to make…

The faint humming noise, combined with a soft glow coming from the crystal in the wand made the princess remember that she had to make sure to think about what she wanted to create before grabbing the wand. Maybe it wouldn’t come out the way she wanted, but at least she’d have some idea of what would come out of the spell; unlike with a completely unplanned burst, which would literally be anything. 

She quickly dropped the wand, making sure to catch it in her other hand before it could actually hit the ground, and then gently placing it beside her once more. 

Now that the previous issue was taken care of, she began to think about what she wanted to lay on. 

The main thing that kept coming to her mind was Cloudy, but while Cloudy was super comfortable to sit on, Star wasn’t sure if it’d be good to just lie on him in one spot for who knows how long. He was mostly a transportation spell, after all; he was literally made to move around, not just stay still. 

Suddenly, a realization hit Star and her eyes lit up as she grabbed the wand and very quickly did her spell. Little balls of cotton erupted from the device, flying around Star until they suddenly converged, lifting her off the ground slightly. 

Once the spell was completed, Star put the wand on the ground once more, having no more need for it at the moment. She then took a brief second to look at her work – basically just a cloud made up of cotton; not fancy, but very soft and really comfortable, which was all she really needed. 

“Alrighty then…now, back to the book” Star said to herself in a quiet voice, changing her position slightly as she turned her attention back to the entry she had discovered. 

“I understand that my entries have become far more infrequent following the delivery of Aster. It seems that my belief that caring for four children would not be much more difficult than caring for three was incorrect. However, I would suggest that this due to no failing of mine, but instead due to both a surprising increase in my royal duties, as well as my youngest being more demanding than his brother or sisters.” 

Star couldn’t help but let out an impressed-sounding whistle as she read. She could barely imagine how she was going to handle taking care of one baby, and now here was one of her Grandmas, taking care of four kids? That Queen definitely had her respect for being able to handle all that, plus actually doing the kinds of things that Star knew a Queen was supposed to do. 

She went back to reading. “While I have not been able to formally write down my thoughts until now, I have in fact been thinking about a great many things. And, upon careful consideration, I believe I have come across an important discovery regarding the gestation of Royal Butterflies.” 

It was at this point that Star got even closer to the book; it sounded like this was really going to be something she wanted to see.

“After comparing my pregnancies with both Aster and Bode and that of Solaris and Galaxia, as well as studying those of other royals, both alive and passed, I have come to a conclusion. Based on my findings, I must say I feel secure in the proclamation that the sex of an unborn Royal may be determined by taking note of the strength and duration of the unexpected magical surges which plague the mother during gestation. My research has shown that, in the case of male offspring, the surges not only tend to be less severe in terms of what the produce and how frequently they occur, but they tend to vanish before the tenth week. Therefore, I must conclude that an expectant Royal may determine the sex of the unborn child at approximately ten weeks gestation, via observation of magical surges. If she is still experiencing the events, the child will be a princess; if not, then she will be expecting a prince.” 

That was the end of the entry, and now Star was left to think about what she had just read. Ultimately, she realized, the information wasn’t really all that helpful, since it didn’t really tell her anything super important. But, at the same time, it was something new; and it made her think. 

She began to think to herself, counting on her fingers as she thought about how much time had passed since...the incident. 

As of today, it had been about twelve weeks, and – as her little thing with the wand before she started reading showed – she was still having magic bursts (or, surges, if she wanted to go with what her Grandma called them). 

Without really thinking about it, Star placed a hand on her stomach as she thought. 

“Guess this means you’re a girl” she said, her voice soft as she addressed her unborn child – her _daughter_. 

She found herself smiling at this realization; and, to her surprise, she felt a few tears falling down her cheeks, which she quickly wiped away. She didn’t even understand why she was crying, considering there was literally nothing to cry about. If anything, this information should have gotten her excited, since now she actually knew what her baby was going to be. 

The only thing she could think of to explain it was that she was just kind of overwhelmed at the moment, and it was effecting her emotions. 

“So, did you find anything?” 

Star couldn’t help but jump slightly as she let out a very brief cry of shock at the sudden noise. Acting on instinct, she reached for her wand and whipped around, firing off a quick energy blast without really thinking about it. 

“I’m going to take that as a ‘no’, then?” Glossaryck asked in an almost deadpan tone of voice as he avoided the energy blast with absolutely zero effort. 

Star couldn’t help but blush slightly when she realized that she’d just tried to attack her mentor, with the blush growing hotter as she noticed the new scorch mark in her bedroom’s ceiling. 

“Um, no, I haven’t found anything I really wanted to try out yet” she admitted, pulling herself up to a sitting position and reaching behind her to quickly flip to another page of the book. 

The last thing she needed was for Glossaryck to notice what she’d been reading, and asking questions about why she was so interested in that information in the first place. 

“That’s not an issue,” Glossaryck said with a shrug, floating down next to the book and grabbing the corner of the page Star had flipped to. “I’ll just...pick something out for you, this time.” 

Star opened her mouth, and held up a hand, preparing to protest and say she just wanted to go back to bed...which was entirely true. Then she remembered that she’d technically been the one to request this lesson, and reluctantly shut her mouth before any words actually came out of it. She was too tired to answer any questions her mentor might ask if she asked to skip the lesson. 

So, instead, she just decided to stay quiet, silently hoping that he’d at least pick an easy spell to teach her this time. 

Star waited for a few moments while Glossaryck flipped through the pages of the book; sometimes taking a second to literally shake herself awake so she wouldn’t end up falling asleep; maybe she made her cotton cloud a little too comfortable, now that she was really thinking about it. 

“Ah, here we go – this looks like a good one to start with” Glossaryck said as he finally stopped flipping through the pages. 

Star inched herself a little closer, to get a better look at the page he’d landed on. From the picture at the top, and the little bits of the text she saw when skimming through it real quick, it was apparently some kind of spell to copy things. 

“Looks pretty easy” Star commented as she looked at the spell. She honestly wasn’t sure if she was supposed to be disappointed or relieved at this discovery. Before she could make a decision regarding her opinion on the matter, she was pulled out of her thoughts by the sound of Glossaryck making a small noise of what she assumed was probably agreement. 

“Well, you’ve never really had a proper magic lesson before, so I figured it’d be best to start off with something simple,” he explained as he conjured up a small stand for the book, floating into the center of the room as the book seemed to move itself onto said stand. 

Star (reluctantly) got up from her cotton-cloud – picking up her wand as she stood up – and followed the little blue man into the center of her bedroom.

Glossaryck suddenly reached inside the sleeve of his robe, pulling out a cup of what seemed to be chocolate pudding. 

“…Why did you have pudding in your robe?” Star asked, almost immediately wondering to herself if she really wanted to know the answer. 

“Two reasons,” the blue man said, “First…I told you I was going to get some pudding. And, second…this is part of your lesson.” 

He placed the pudding cup on the floor, and then explained that Star was supposed to use the replication spell to make another one. As he explained, realization flooded into the Mewnian princess, and she couldn’t help but let her irritation show, just a bit. 

“You just want me to make you more pudding, don’t you?” she asked, her tone sounding much more tired than angry. 

“That is not the only reason I wanted to teach you. But, I won’t deny that I have every intention of taking advantage of any extra pudding that may result from this lesson,” her mentor replied matter-of-factly. 

Well, at least he was being honest…probably. In the relatively short time that she’d really personally known him, Star had quickly discovered that she never could really tell if Glossaryck was telling the truth at any given point or not. But, she could see any reason why he would want to lie in this case, so she figured he was most likely being truthful about his last statement. 

“Okay…” the princess said, lifting up her wand. “So, how do I do this copying spell?” 

Her wand suddenly shot out a spell, too quickly for her to even try to do anything about it. 

She could only watch with a nervous expression as the blast of light hit her sheets, which quickly wound themselves up until they resembled a snake, including a tongue made of very tightly wound fabric. The princess and her mentor just stared at the newly created sheet-snake, which had begun to coil itself around Star’s pillow. 

“Okay, well, first of all, I can tell you that turning bedding into reptiles is not part of the spell. Though, I would have thought that would be fairly common knowledge” Glossaryck said to Star as he turned away from watching the actions of the sheet-snake. Outside of raising one eyebrow ever-so-slightly, his expression was completely neutral. 

Star wasn’t sure if that was a reason to be more worried, or less. 

“I knew that” she said, chuckling nervously as she pointed her wand at her accidental creation. “I just, uh…wanted to have a little bit of fun before starting with the lesson, that’s all. Yeah, that’s what that was about.” 

She quickly thought of a spell to undo the last one, and shot it at the sheet-snake, which seemed to tighten around her pillow before going completely limb, seeming to have turned back to regular sheets – though they were still somewhat bunched up, making it look like the princess had experienced a very bad night’s sleep. 

When the spell was taken care of, Star gave Glossaryck a smile, mentally praying that he wouldn’t ask any further questions about what had just happened. 

After a few tense moments, Glossaryck shrugged and said, “I guess that’s fair enough.” 

Star let out a sigh of relief and turned her attention back to the little blue wizard as he began to explain how she was meant to perform this new spell.

It really didn’t sound all that complicated; just a couple of hand motions and a word, and she would be able to make copies of anything she wanted. 

And while she still wasn’t sure she was all that excited about learning the spell, she had to admit that sounded like a pretty cool ability to have; even if she had to assume there were probably some limits to what the spell could do – which she’d figure out later, she was sure. 

“Okay, let’s try this,” she said, mostly speaking to herself, as she prepared to try out the spell. 

She took a brief moment to glance at the instructions in the book before trying it for herself. Making sure she had the right idea, the princess aimed her wand at the pudding cup and began the spell. 

“Replifrita” she said clearly, trying her best to figure out how to pronounce the spell based on the guide in the book. As she spoke, she also performed the action shown by the illustrated figure: a small, very quick circular motion with her hand, followed by a quick snap of her wrist in another direction. 

Again, it was a pretty easy spell, so Star wasn’t too worried about being able to do it right. The issue was that whether the spell worked or not wasn’t really up to her. 

Star watched with slightly bated breath as a blast of bright green energy shot out of the wand and hit the pudding cup, engulfing it briefly in a green light. The glow faded shortly after, and for a moment, it seemed like the spell hadn’t work; nothing happened, at all. 

Then, all of a sudden, the cup began to shake. And a second later, the foil cover peeled off the top and the chocolate pudding inside suddenly jumped out of its container, having come to life in the form of a strange blob-like creature. 

The pudding blob suddenly swallowed the plastic cup, before beginning to inch across the floor, leaving a trail of what looked a lot like chocolate milk in its wake. 

“Let me just try that again” Star said, hoping she didn’t look as nervous as she felt. She zapped the pudding blob, causing it to wobble in place for a second before reverting back to the original pudding cup, all sealed up and everything. 

Star watched the cup for a second, just to make sure the spell had been completely undone, before taking another attempt at the replicator spell. 

In fact, she ended up trying it several times, with none of them working out like she hoped; and each attempt made her more and more anxious as she was certain that each failure was going to make Glossaryck suspicious, though he never once did more than slightly raise an eyebrow at the more…interesting failures. 

“Okay, I think I’m done for now” she finally confessed after undoing her fifth attempt at the spell. 

Not only was she worried that any more failed attempts would put her secret in danger, but she was honestly getting really frustrated with the whole thing. It wasn’t even like the spell was going to be all that useful, anyway, she figured as she just mentally gave up on the whole thing. 

To her relief, Glossaryck didn’t press the issue and try to make her continue with the lesson. Instead, he just shrugged, said, “Alright, have it your way”, and then disappeared back into the book, which closed itself immediately afterwards. 

“Well,” Star said to herself, crossing her arms over her chest in annoyance, “Guess there’s no point in trying to get back to sleep, now.” 

She was unable to keep the slightly bitter tone out of her voice, nor was she able to keep herself from shooting a brief glare over at the spell book. 

Still, she wasn’t going to complain. Instead, she decided to go downstairs and have some breakfast. Now that she was more or less awake, she was starting to realize that she was actually feeling kind of hungry. And trying to duplicate the pudding for Glossaryck hadn’t exactly helped in that regard. 

Being careful to be quiet so she wouldn’t wake Marco or his parents, Star made her way downstairs to the kitchen, where she began to look for something quick and easy to munch on. She looked into the cabinet and found a box of Sugar Seeds. 

“Perfect” she said, licking her lips slightly as she grabbed the box. And considering she didn’t feel sick at all, and her wand was being quiet, it seemed like the baby agreed with her choice. 

Sure, Star wasn’t sure if they – she (she had to get used to the idea of thinking of the baby as a girl, now that she knew) – was really responsible for that; but considering her previous experiences, it didn’t seem all that unlikely to her. 

Starting to get a little bored now that she was awake and alone in the kitchen, the Mewnian princess began to half-hum and half-sing a little nonsense song to herself as she got her cereal. The “lyrics” (if she wanted to call them that) were just little comments to herself about what she was doing. 

She didn’t care if it sounded silly. Not only was she never really all that concerned with things like that, but there was no one to see or hear her, anyway. She just wanted to entertain herself while she got her snack. 

“I may have gone a little overboard with the cereal,” Star said to herself once she saw that the bowl she’d poured the Sugar Seeds into now had what looked like a small hill of cereal resting inside of it. 

“Well, I am pretty hungry,” she said with a shrug. She grabbed the bowl and carefully walked into the living room, being sure not to spill any of the contents on the floor. Yes, she could probably clean up any mess quickly enough with magic…but that would depend on her magic doing what she wanted. And thanks to a certain baby girl, Star knew that may not exactly work out the way she wanted. 

A wave of nausea briefly hit her, almost as if in response to her most recent thoughts. 

“Sorry,” she whispered, looking down at her stomach. “I know it’s not really your fault. You can’t help it, either.” 

The nauseous feeling seemed to fade away not long after that. Star carefully put the bowl of cereal down on the coffee table, and then sat down on the couch, grabbing the remote control and pressing the power button. 

An instant later, the TV turned on, volume blasting so loudly that Star couldn’t help but jump slightly before she was able to regain her senses enough to frantically lower the volume. Apparently whoever watched the TV last had forgotten to turn the volume down when they turned it off. 

“…Oh, right…that was me” she muttered sheepishly to herself, feeling her cheeks warm up slightly as the blush started to form. Her cheeks still burning, she began flipping through the channels until she found something she wanted to watch – which turned out to be more difficult than she was expecting; apparently there wasn’t much worth watching this early in the morning.

But, she did eventually find a channel that was showing what looked like some old sitcoms that looked like they might be pretty funny, and settled in with her cereal to relax and enjoy herself. That was basically how she spent the next couple of hours – not counting when she got up to do things like go use the bathroom or get something to drink. 

It was a pretty good time overall; she found the old shows to actually be pretty funny, surprisingly so in some cases; and she could have sworn that the Sugar Seeds tasted even better than usual. 

However, despite how good the cereal tasted, Star couldn’t help but wonder if maybe she shouldn’t have eaten so much at once. 

She wasn’t exactly feeling sick, but she could have sworn that she could literally feel the sugar coursing through her, to the point where she could barely sit still by the time she had finished the snack. In fact, she actually had to put her wand underneath one of the sofa cushion to prevent herself from just firing off random spells out of a need to try and burn off the excess energy. 

Normally she would’ve just done what she wanted, but it was still pretty early and she knew she’d feel bad if she woke up the Diazes just because she wanted to have fun. Not to mention she had learned from the “sugarito incident” that when she used magic after having too much sugar…it didn’t always end well for pretty much anyone involved. 

So, she did her best to try and burn off her energy without being too loud or causing any damage. Which basically resulted in her bouncing her legs a lot, pacing around the downstairs area (including going into the backyard at one point), and doing things like twirling around the remote control and playing with some tongs she found in a drawer in the kitchen. 

And it did end up working, even if it took longer than Star had expected; apparently she’d gotten more sugar into her system than she realized. Even when she was relaxed enough that she could sit still without too much issue, she was still certain that she’d be wide awake for quite a while. 

Thankfully, it was almost late enough in the day that either Marco would be waking up soon, or she could wake him without feeling bad about it. 

So, at least she wouldn’t have to be alone and bored for too much longer. 

And, indeed, about an hour later, everyone in the house was awake and coming downstairs for breakfast. 

Having eaten her bowl of Sugar Seeds earlier, Star wasn’t exactly super hungry, though she did have a couple of slices of toast with blueberry jam spread on top; both because she was still a little hungry despite her earlier snack, and just because she liked sitting with Marco and his parents during mealtimes. 

After everyone had finished eating, Mr. and Mrs. Diaz left for the day, with Mrs. Diaz going to work and her husband just…going out. They instructed the teens to watch the house while they were gone, but other than that, it was clear that Star and Marco were permitted to do whatever they pleased while they were alone. 

Not too long after the adults had left, the young princess was starting to get just a little bored, and tried to think of something fun for her and her best friend to do. Thankfully, it didn’t take long for an idea to come to her. 

“Hey,” she began, waiting for Marco to look at her before continuing, “You wanna play a really cool game?” 

Without waiting for him to answer, she whipped out her wand and summoned what looked a bit like a large book, not much smaller than her spell book. She opened up the book, revealing what was inside: what looked like a fairly fancy board game, with miniature stairs and winding slides built into it. 

Marco was clearly impressed, and got down on the ground next to Star to get a closer look, at which point something else caught his attention. 

“Wait…” he began, narrowing his eyes slightly, as though trying to get a closer look at the thing that had interested him, “Are those…us?!” 

Sure enough, standing near the starting point of the game’s trail were what looked like tiny versions of the two friends, who seemed to just be standing around, looking like they were waiting for the game to begin. It was hard to tell if Marco’s exclamation had been one of fear or excitement…so Star just decided to assume it was the second option, and smiled as she explained where the mini-thems had come from.

“Yeah,” she began getting on the floor next to him. “Instead of coming with game pieces, the game just makes a little tiny you to do whatever you want ‘em to do.” 

The explanation seemed to satisfy him, so she went on to explain how the game itself was played. 

“So, it’s kind of like ‘Chutes and Ladders’” he said once she had finished her explanation. Not really knowing what he was talking about, but wanting to get to actually playing the game, Star just agreed with the comparison and whipped out a pair of dice, which she quickly through onto the game board, starting the game. 

The two of them played for a while, and while it wasn’t quite the same as fighting monsters or going on adventures to other dimensions, it was still a good time. 

Though, Star couldn’t deny that Marco’s insistence on playing the game by the rules did get a little frustrating at times; especially when he tried to get her to do so at the expense of actually having fun. 

They were actually in the middle of a sort of debate on the subject of whether following the rules or having fun was more important, when suddenly a portal opened up in the middle of her bedroom. 

“Buff Frog?!” the two teens cried as the frog monster stepped out of the portal, a stern look on his face. 

They were prepared for a fight, when Buff Frog suddenly turned around and pulled something out from the other side of the portal – a stroller full of what looked like little green and black blobs with eyes. 

“Buff Babies!” Star squealed with delight as she saw the tadpoles. 

Sure, she hadn’t been too excited to see them the first time, but that was because she’d been worried about Marco. Now that everything was back to normal, she couldn’t resist how cute the little blobby babies were. 

She wanted to get a closer look, but held herself back; obviously Buff Frog wanted something if he was just showing up like this, and it would probably be best to find out what it was before she started cooing over the babies…even if they were super adorable. 

She slammed the game shut, ignoring the cries of protest from the mini-her and mini-Marco. 

“Star Butterfly” Buff Frog began, his voice and expression still both very stern. He turned around and picked up the tadpoles, gathering them all up into his arms. When he spoke again, his tone was very different, sounding like he was almost bawling. 

“My babies! Please to be watching them – I do not know anyone else who I can ask.” 

He dropped the babies on the ground, where they bounced slightly before settling down. Outside of looking slightly startled when they hit the ground, it didn’t seem like the fall had affected the little things at all, considering how calm they seemed after they stopped bouncing. 

Star barely paid any attention to what Buff Frog was saying, being more focused on getting a closer look at the babies. Once she had her momentary fill of cuteness, she got back up again, assuring Buff Frog that she and Marco would have no problem looking after them. 

As Buff Frog paced around the room, talking on his compact, Marco whispered to Star, “Do you know anything about babysitting?” 

“Well…not really” she had to admit. Her experience with babies was pretty lacking, mostly being limited to when she saw her little cousins during the family picnics each year; and even then, she never really took care of them. “But, I was a baby once – I think that’s enough to be able to figure out how this works, right?” 

Besides, she thought to herself, this would probably be good practice. Even if their baby wasn’t going to be coming for a while, taking care of the Buff Babies would help them (or, more accurately, her – she still wasn’t sure how much he’d want to be involved with the whole thing…assuming he’d want to be involved at all) be ready for when she was here. 

So, she was going to get some first-hand experience that would help her when she had her own baby, and as a bonus, she would get to take care of and play with some super cute baby tadpoles; how could she say no to that? 

As Buff Frog finished up his call, he handed the newly appointed sitters a large binder that was full of instructions on how to take care of his offspring. 

The Mewnian princess only half paid attention to what he was saying, once again going back to fawning over the little blobs sitting on her bedroom floor. She continued to do this as they brought the babies downstairs and set them on a blanket that was laid over the coffee table. 

“Sweet little babies,” she cooed at them as they stared up at her from their spot on the table. “You’re all so young and full of dreams. What kinds of magical adventures are we gonna take you on?” 

Her excitement faded somewhat when Marco answered her question by saying, “A nap.” 

However, she tried to be optimistic about the whole thing. After all, it probably did make sense that they would have to take a nap before they had some fun; they were just babies, after all, and she did know babies needed sleep. There would be plenty of time to play after they woke up from their nap. 

She allowed herself to get excited again, asking Marco what they were going to do when the babies woke up from their nap…only to be disappointed when he revealed that apparently all they were supposed to do with the babies while they were sitting was let them sleep, and feed them. 

“That doesn’t sound like any fun” she complained, just barely being able to keep herself from whining. There was a part of her that knew that babies did have to sleep and eat, but it didn’t seem right for that to be all they did. 

“It’s not always about having fun, Star. Buff Frog told us to take care of the babies, and we have to do it by the book” Marco told her, holding up the binder Buff Frog had left to help illustrate his point. 

Star wasn’t willing to accept this without a fight, and continued her protest, trying to get her friend to see things her way. 

“But babies need fun!” she declared, hoping he’d at least be willing to listen to reason. 

Unfortunately, her wish didn’t come true, and he simply continued to insist that they had to follow the instructions Buff Frog gave them. Before she could say anything else, he took away the tadpole she’d been holding and replaced it with the huge binder, telling her to read him the instructions on the page. 

Despite her disappointment (and annoyance) that he wouldn’t listen to her, she did as he asked, reading the directions on how each tadpole slept while he did as the instructions said. 

She couldn’t help but smile slightly as she read the last line, which declared that Katrina, the smallest of the babies, had to be held in order to fall asleep; and the smile only grew when Marco gently handled the little blobby baby to her, and she let out a little yawn before seeming to drift off, just like her brothers and sisters.

“Okay, now you watch them while I go make their lunch” Marco said, getting up and heading into the kitchen. 

Star was about to protest against the arrangement, but then she realized that her options were making a bunch of lunches, or spending time with the sleeping blobs of cuteness that were the Buff Babies; not exactly a difficult choice for her. So, she quickly shut her mouth and went back to watching the babies sleep. 

Once again, she found herself overwhelmed with cuteness. In her defense, not only was she dealing with such adorable little babies, but had just learned about her own baby girl earlier that day. Was it any surprise that she was this affected by the babies? 

It was just impossible to resist them; and more specifically, it was impossible to resist the urge to boop their cute little faces.

“Just one boop…” she said aloud, her voice coming out in a squeak as she slowly started to move her finger towards one of the babies sleeping on the table. 

Before she could make contact, Marco’s voice came from the kitchen. Apparently he’d realized what she was going to want to do, considering what he said: “Star, no booping. Just watch them.” 

Blushing slightly at the reprimand, Star repeated the order and went back to watching the babies. However, it didn’t take long for her to once again get overwhelmed by their cuteness. 

Katrina was especially damaging to her self-control, whether that was because she was holding her, she was the smallest of the babies, she was a girl like her own baby was going to be, or any combination of the three. 

“You just wanna be boopidy-booped, don’t you, little…No!” Star began cooing at the sleeping baby in her hand, stopping herself with a harsh whisper before she could actually do any booping. 

She looked around, as if checking to see if anyone had seen what she’d almost done. Upon seeing that she was still alone in the room (minus the babies, of course), Star smiled, proud of herself for being able to resist the urge that had washed over her. 

Though, the feeling of pride didn’t last long, as only a few moments passed before the urge came back, stronger than before. And this time, she couldn’t resist it. 

“Boop!” she said with a smile as she poked the side of Katrina’s egg-bubble-thing, poking the tadpole’s cheek by extension. For a second, it seemed like everything would be fine…then Katrina started to croak loudly, which woke up the others and got them to do the same. 

“Oh, no, no, nononononono” Star said to herself as she tried to gather up the babies and get them to quiet down. “You guys don’t need to do that, right? You know I didn’t mean you wake you up, and you still gotta take that nap like your Daddy wanted. So, how about you just shut your eyes and go back to sleep, you little cuties?” 

As she spoke, she attempted to rock the tadpoles, holding all of the croaking bubbles at once, hoping that maybe that would help calm them down. Unfortunately, attempted was the keyword in that sentence, as she was barely managing to hold all of them, much less do anything to soothe them. 

After a few seconds of trying, she realized it was going to work and just gave up, sliding to the floor, where she opened up her arms, allowing the babies to gently slide onto the floor. And that was where she stayed: just lying on the floor, surrounded by bouncing, croaking, baby monsters; until Marco came in, asking what the scene was all about. 

“I booped, Marco” the princess admitted from her spot on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. “I booped so bad.” She was vaguely aware of Marco making a sound that made it clear he was just as freaked out by the development as she was, followed by the sound of fluttering pages. 

“Okay,” Marco said, after he stopped flipping through the pages. “It says here that if they start croaking like this, we just need to give them lunch. Well, that should be easy – I’ve got their bottles all set up in the kitchen; we just need to go and grab them.” 

For some reason, this snapped the princess out of her temporary stupor. She stood up, quickly gathering up all the babies, and handed them to her friend, proclaiming, “I got it!” as she shoved them into his arms and ran into the kitchen. 

Once she was inside the kitchen, her enthusiasm died as she saw what was undoubtedly supposed to be lunch for the Buff Babies: a bunch of bottles with what looked like green slime coming out of them, with a few flies buzzing around. 

“There is no way my babies are eating that slop” Star said to herself as she examined the bottles. 

She then made the mistake of taking a whiff of the things…and immediately regretted it as she felt the urge to throw up as soon as the stench reached her nostrils. She rushed over to the wastebasket, where she ended up emptying the contents of her stomach. 

“Star?” she could hear Marco’s concerned voice calling from the living room. “Are you okay?” 

Thankfully, by this time she was done getting sick, so she was able to answer. 

“Yeah, I’m fine” she called back. It wasn’t a total lie; besides feeling a little drained and having an unpleasant taste in her mouth, she really didn’t feel too bad after that episode. 

It did, however, make her all the more certain that she was not going to feed that disgusting stuff to the babies. After all, it was pretty clear her baby didn’t like it – by this point, her nausea had more or less stopped happening, outside of pretty rare instances, or when she smelled certain things – and that seemed like a good sign that it wasn’t good for babies in general.

Plus, she had to admit that she didn’t want to risk getting sick again on the off-chance she ended up smelling the contents of the bottles as she carried them into the living room for the feeding. Now the only question was…

”What are they gonna eat, then?” Star wondered to herself, scratching her head with the wings of her wand – after zapping away her “deposit” into the wastebasket. 

Because it was clear that the babies did need to eat something, even if she wasn’t going to feed them the slop that Marco had mixed up for them. 

As she was thinking, she was suddenly hit with a craving for cake, which made her lose her concentration. Thankfully, this wouldn’t be too much of an issue – there was some cake left in the fridge, meaning she could satisfy this particular craving without any issue; and then she could get back to thinking about what the babies could eat. 

Putting that thought aside for a moment, Star went over to the fridge and pulled out a slice of cake, taking a bite out of it even before closing the door.

“This is good” she mumbled to herself, her mouth still full of cake. 

That was when the idea came to her – she knew what she was going to put into the bottles now! 

Lifting up her wand in her free hand, she said a quick spell, aiming at the bottles. Within seconds, the gross-looking and smelling bottles were replaced by copies that looked nearly identical from the outside – other than the lack of slime or flies buzzing around. However, inside was an entirely different story: where there was once that disgusting goop was now what basically counted as liquefied cake. 

“Star! What’s taking so long?” 

Hearing Marco calling from the living room, Star quickly finished eating her slice of cake, gathered up the bottles with her magic and rushed into the room. She plopped each of the bottles into the tops of the tadpoles’ jelly eggs, and watched as they began drinking the contents, filling up their eggs with what looks like bright pink goo. 

“…What is that?” Marco asked, looking at his friend with a somewhat accusatory expression upon his face. 

The princess, however, felt no reason to be ashamed of what she’d done, and just replied with the truth – much to Marco’s horror as he screamed that they couldn’t feed the babies cake. 

“Buff Frog’s binder gave specific instructions on what they’re supposed to eat – and it’s not cake! You aren’t even supposed to feed babies cake at all!” he said, motioning frantically at where the binder was lying, even as he nervously watched the babies continue to eat the cake they’d been fed. 

“Calm down, Marco,” Star said, placing a hand on his shoulders to try and help him do just that. “I’m sure Buff Frog won’t mind us giving them a treat, especially if they liked it.” 

As if on cue, the Buff Babies each spat out their bottles, signifying that they were done eating. 

“See?” the princess said to Marco, before turning her attention to the babies and speaking in a “baby” voice as she got up close to one and asked, “You liked your cake didn’t y-“ 

Her question was cut off by a slightly disgusted sound as one of the babies began to belch, spewing out the mushy cake into her face. Still letting out disgusted noises while she wiped off her face, the Mewman was quickly made aware of the fact that the rest of the babies were also starting to spit up the cake she’d fed them. 

So, apparently babies really couldn’t eat cake...That was something she would make sure to remember for when the time came. 

Now, however, there were other things to worry about – like getting the babies to stop squirting cake everywhere. Fortunately, that didn’t end up being too hard, since Buff Frog had apparently accounted for something like this, and the solution was really simple: just give the babies a bath, and they’d stop spitting up. 

It even ended up being kind of fun, with the babies starting to dance when Star’s ringtone went off, thanks to Buff Frog giving her a call, most likely to check up on the babysitting situation.

Cleaning up the living room wasn’t anywhere near as fun as giving the babies their bath, but at least it was easy enough – mostly due to Star using her magic to summon some kitten maids, who quickly cleaned up the mess before returning to the inside of the wand. Still, it didn’t take long until the babies were calm, and both they and the room were clean. 

“That is just too cute” Star cooed as Marco dried off the last of the babies, gently rubbing on his jelly-egg with a towel he’d grabbed a few moments ago. The other tadpoles sat on the floor in front of them, now wide awake and smiling up at the princess as she fawned over the image. She was so overwhelmed with the cuteness of what she saw, that she couldn’t resist the urge to take a photograph with her phone and send it to Buff Frog, along with a message “from” the Buff Babies to help encourage him while he did his job. 

And, in the quietness of the moment, something occurred to her. 

“You know…you’re pretty good at this” Star said to Marco as she watched him holding one of the babies. 

She wasn’t just referring to that moment, but also just how he’d been pretty good with the babies the entire time they were watching them. He was surprisingly good with babies, it seemed…

Without really thinking about it, Star found herself placing a hand over her belly, around the place where her – their – baby would have been, under normal circumstances. She was still nervous about how he might respond, but, for reasons even she couldn’t explain, something about this moment was making her feel bolder than she had been in a while; at least in regards to the topic of her pregnancy. 

She opened her mouth, about to speak…when all of a sudden, the tadpole that Marco had been holding jump from his hand and onto the floor – where a pair of legs suddenly sprouted from the egg. 

Star was so amazed by what she saw that she temporarily forgot about what she wanted to tell her friend, while Marco was just freaking out about the new development. 

“There’s nothing in the binder about growing legs…” he said in a panicked voice as he started flipping through the pages of said binder. While he did that, Star continued to marvel over the new legs of the tadpole.

She was thinking about what kinds of games they could play now that the baby could move around easier, when suddenly, the rest of the tadpoles sprouted legs of their own, save for Katrina, who remained a little blobby baby. 

Again, the two teens had completely opposite reactions to what they witnesses. Marco continued to panic, and Star just gasped in amazement as the tadpoles with legs began to use their new appendages, running throughout the room. 

“Okay…okay…this isn’t so bad.” Marco said, seeming to be speaking more to himself than to anyone else. “I mean, I guess there’s nothing wrong with letting them play around in the living room for a bit. Just as long as they – no!” 

As if on cue, the mobile tadpoles darted out of the room, some staying in small groups, but most going in different directions. 

The boy made a face that just screamed that he was barely keeping himself from yelling at the top of his lungs before starting to rush after the monsters; the problem being that he didn’t seem to know which ones he wanted to try and catch first, so he kept suddenly changing targets whenever one would run past him. And for having just grown their legs, the little monsters were surprisingly fast and agile, often darting out of the way just in time to avoid being caught. 

“C’mon, Marco, just let them play for a little bit; they’re having fun” Star said, before turning her attention to Katrina, still sitting on the ground. 

She gave the tadpole a sympathetic smile and picked her up, cooing in a soft voice, “Poor little Katrina…you feel left out, don’t you?” 

Katrina, being unable to speak, just smiled in response to the question. 

“Don’t worry about Katrina!” Marco yelled, not pausing from his attempt to wrangle the rest of the babies. “Just help me get these babies under control!”

It was at this moment that he realized one of the babies had managed to open the front door, and a few others were starting to run towards it. He let out a strangled-sounding squeak as he darted towards the escaping babies, running as fast as he could in an attempt to catch them before any could actually get outside. 

Unfortunately, it seemed like the babies were also incredibly smart for their age, as the three that were running towards the door jumped out of the way at the last minute, leaving Marco to stumble out the door before he could stop himself. 

And by the time he was able to stop and right himself, they had slammed the front door shut and managed to lock it, leaving him desperately trying to get back into the house. 

Star gasped as she witnessed this. 

“Okay” she said to herself as she went over to the fireplace and gently deposited Katrina on the mantle, “Maybe it’s time to dial back on the fun, just a little bit.” 

Once she was sure Katrina was okay, she turned her attention back to her brothers and sisters, who were still running around the house. There was a part of her that felt bad about what she was about to do, but at the same time, what had just happened to Marco made her realize that maybe things were getting a little too crazy. 

She quickly ran over to the door, wanting to let Marco back into the house. However, when she opened the door, she found her friend gone. That didn’t worry her too much; she figured he was probably just going to try and find another way inside. For the time being, she had something else to worry about. 

“C’mon, babies – time to play in the living room for a little bit” she called to them, hoping that would at least get their attention, and maybe get them to come into the room. And, for a moment, it seemed to work. 

The sound of little feet hitting the floor stopped, indicating that the babies had stopped running around when they heard Star calling for them. However, about two seconds later, it came back, and it didn’t seem like any of them were coming towards her. 

Star let out a sigh and turned her attention back to Katrina, happily sitting on the mantle. 

“You just wait there while I go and get your brothers and sisters” she told the little monster. Not that she expected Katrina would go anywhere – how could she, when she was the only one of the tadpoles who was still basically just a blob? 

The princess turned around and spotted a small group of tadpoles hopping up the stairs. She decided to go after them first; it made sense, considering they were right there. She followed them up the stairs, planning on grabbing them at the top. Or, if she wasn’t able to catch them, she’d see if maybe she could herd them into one of the rooms upstairs and then bring them back down once they stopped running around so much.

But as they reached the top of the stairs, the tadpoles suddenly leaped onto the banister and began to slide down to the base of the stairs. 

For a split second, Star was about to start running back down the stairs…and then she realized that copying the tadpoles would be much faster. And so began a bit of a cycle, with the Buff Babies hopping up the stairs, only to slide down the banister when they got to the top, with Star following close behind; with them just barely out of reach at any given point. 

As she slid down the banister for the fourth time, Star couldn’t help but start to laugh; hey, it was pretty fun! 

Then she heard Marco yelling from upstairs – apparently he’d managed to get back inside somehow – reminding her of the fact that she had something important to do.

As she reached the bottom of the stairs, she got ready to head back up…only to suddenly be hit by a wave of nausea that left her unable to move for a second as she hiccupped, covering her mouth with one hand and lightly touching her stomach with the other. 

“Really not a good time for this, sweetie” she said once she was sure she wasn’t going to actually get sick, keeping her voice low, just to be safe. After a moment, the feeling seemed to have passed, so Star looked up, ready to catch the babies.

However, apparently they had grown bored of the game, and now she had no idea where they were. She was about to go look upstairs, when suddenly a couple came bouncing down, followed by Marco. 

The boy slammed into his best friend, grabbing her arms as they both regained their footing. 

“We have to get these babies under control before Buff Frog comes back!” Marco told Star, his already panicked expression intensifying as he looked at the clock and discovered just how close it was to the time the Frog Monster was supposed to come pick up his children. “We’ve got _four minutes_ to get these babies under control!” 

Star gently peeled his hands from her arms. 

“Marco, relax – we got this handled, okay? You just take care of the ones with the legs, while I take care of – Katrina?!” 

As she spoke, Star turned to look at Katrina, only to discover that the littlest tadpole was no longer there. Both of the teens went pale as the blood drained from their faces at this discovery. 

“How did she even…” Marco began to ask, only to get cut off as Star literally slapped her hand over his mouth. 

“Who cares?” she exclaimed, taking her hand away. “We just have to find her!” 

“Right!” Marco replied with a nod. 

The two of them split up, knowing that would give them their best chance of finding her in the shortest amount of time. Thankfully, this plan worked, and they were able to check in most of the rooms within a matter of a couple minutes. 

Unfortunately, Katrina wasn’t in any of the rooms they checked, and the last one she could possibly be in was Star’s bedroom – the biggest room in the house. There was no way they’d be able to search the room and find Katrina before Buff Frog came back; at least, not alone. 

“We need an army to search your room” Marco said, frantically looking around, as though hoping he’d be lucky enough to just spot the missing tadpole. 

“An army…” Star muttered, scratching her chin. An idea came to her suddenly, and her eyes lit up as she gasped, “That’s it!” 

Jumping onto her bed, she held up her wand and began to play the song from Marco’s ringtone. At first, her friend looked confused by her actions, only for realization to apparently dawn on him as the rest of Buff Frog’s children ran into the room; apparently they were drawn by the music. It did make sense; they had learned that the babies liked music earlier. 

Well, now they had their “army” – all they had to do now was actually search the room and find Katrina. Marco gave them the order – though Star had to remind him to keep it fun for the babies. 

Soon enough, the tadpoles were looking all over the room, and Katrina was found, safe and sound. However, they ran into a snag concerning where she was: in a pile of stuffed animals, surrounded by bear traps. 

How she got there, neither Star or Marco knew, but they did know they had to find some way to get to her without getting caught in the traps. 

“I got it!” Star said suddenly, reaching for the binder Buff Frog had left them. Before her friend could say anything in protest, she tossed the huge book at the traps, setting them off as they closed on it, leaving a path open for them to reach Katrina. 

Amazingly, Katrina remained peacefully sleeping in her bed of stuffed animals, despite the noise, only waking with a slight yawn as Star ran over and scooped her up. 

“Oh, Katrina” the princess cried in relief, nuzzling the tadpole against her cheek. “We’re so happy you’re okay. Please don’t ever do that again – you really scared us, just disappearing like that.” 

Katrina, of course, didn’t really say anything in response, and just yawned again. 

Meanwhile, Marco was picking up the binder, being careful to avoid the bear traps that had clamped onto it. He opened the book, flipping to the last chapter that Buff Frog had written. 

“You know,” he began, causing Star to look away from Katrina and turn her attention to him. “there’s a lot of space left in this thing for new material. Maybe we could do something to surprise Buff Frog, since he wasn’t able to be here for all the fun.” 

Star’s eyes lit up at this suggestion. 

“Let’s put some photos of the babies in and make a new chapter” she said, looking over at the legged tadpoles, who all began hopping up and down excitedly; apparently they liked the idea, too. And, if the smile on his face was any indication, Marco felt the same way. 

So, for the next couple of minutes, the two teens took a bunch of photographs of the tadpoles who had grown legs, and then pasted them into the binder – after carefully removing all of the bear traps, and having Star vanish them away with her magic. 

After that, it was just a matter of waiting for their father to show up. To pass the time, the group went back into the living room, where Marco began to read from a picture book that Buff Frog had left, while Star fed Katrina a bottle. 

This time the bottle was filled with something more appropriate for babies, though thankfully the contents were nowhere near as nasty as the ones Marco had made earlier. Otherwise, Star would have not been able to handle being so close to the stuff. The smell still wasn’t all the pleasant, but she was able to at least tolerate it for the time it took for Katrina to finish feeding. 

A portal suddenly opened up in the living room, right next to where the teens and tadpoles were sitting, with Buff Frog emerging a second later, happily greeting his children. 

However, when the majority of the tadpoles stood, revealing their new legs, he began to sob, making both Star and Marco very concerned. 

“Are you okay?” Marco asked, watching with a slightly worried expression as a still sobbing Buff Frog scooped up most of his children into his arms. 

“I missed baby tadpoles grow legs,” he managed to choke out through his sobs, “Is most important developmental stage of child development.”

Maybe it was just because he looked so sad, or maybe it was because, given her current condition, she could understand how he felt; but Star wanted to try and comfort Buff Frog. She looked down at Katrina, sitting peacefully in her arms, and smiled. 

“Well,” she began, gently placing the littlest tadpole on the floor in front of her father, “Katrina hasn’t grown her legs yet.” 

Buff Frog beamed with joy as he looked at his daughter, cooing over how she was his “little late bloomer.” 

The three of them watched as Katrina suddenly sprouted legs of her own – which were quite a bit more muscular-looking than her siblings’ – and unsteadily ran over to Buff Frog, who scooped her up with the biggest grin on his face. 

Star and Marco watched the scene, and then looked at each other and smiled slightly. Neither of them had to say a word to let the other know what they were thinking: the moment was a little strange, but nonetheless, very sweet. 

Buff Frog thanked the two before stepping back through the portal with the tadpoles (most of them perched on his shoulders, while Katrina sat cradled in his arms), which closed immediately after. 

Now that the two of them were alone, there seemed to be the silent question of what they were going to do for the rest of the time they had the house to themselves. Normally they would be going on some kind of crazy fun adventure, or even just hanging out talking or watching TV together. But, after that little adventure babysitting the Buff Babies, neither of those felt like the most entertaining option at the moment. 

“I don’t know about you,” Marco began as he climbed onto the couch, bending his legs so that Star could sit as well, “but I could really use a nap.” 

“No, no, I’d like a nap, too,” she replied. Any energy she’d acquired from her snack early that morning had been used up by now, and combined with the excitement of the babysitting job, she was feeling pretty drained. 

The Earth boy smiled slightly at his friend as his head began to droop, a clear sign of tiredness. It wasn’t too long after this that he seemed to have fallen asleep, though the position he was in didn’t seem particular comfortable – even to Star, who had sometimes gotten into some pretty…interesting positions and still managed to fall asleep. 

At first she wondered why he wasn’t lying down…and then she remembered that she was taking up the rest of the couch. 

She stood up, gently touching his leg as she did, just enough to try and let him know that the space was free. Marco groaned slightly at the touch, but remained fast asleep, and soon allowed himself to stretch out a little more. 

Star was about to go upstairs to her room for a nap of her own, when something seemed to spark inside of her. 

For reasons even she couldn’t fully understand, much less explain, she carefully climbed onto the couch beside her friend, being extra careful not to wake him. It was a bit of a tight fit, but not an uncomfortable one. 

The lack of space did mean that Star had to put her body up against Marco’s; but while it did feel a little awkward at first, the feeling faded quickly enough as the tiredness and feeling of comfort and security were much more prominent. 

Still moving gingerly to avoid waking her sleeping friend, the Mewnian princess moved so that her chin was about level with her friend’s shoulder. 

She was starting to drift asleep when Marco seemed to stir, and she tensed up, worried that he was going to wake and they’d be dealing with another uncomfortably awkward moment because of what she was doing. 

However, he remained asleep, only changing his position slightly before settling down again. He moved his arms slightly – almost as if he was aware that Star was there – with one ending up being gently wrapped around her, and the other placed between their bodies, with his hand resting, almost feather-light, on her belly. 

The touch made Star freeze and blush; this whole thing was making her feel…kind of weird, to put it lightly. But, within a few seconds, she found herself relaxing, and felt a smile start to form on her face. 

Yes, lying here like this did still feel a little weird, but…not in a bad way.

It didn’t take too long for her to fall asleep as well, and the two friends just stayed that way, napping peacefully together. 

That was, until a couple of hours later, when they awoke and Star found herself having to reassure an frantically apologetic Marco that she hadn’t minded the physical contact they shared while asleep.

“Actually, I…” she began to say, before cutting herself off mid-sentence. She had been about to say that she’d enjoyed having him hold her while they slept, but for some reason, she just couldn’t; it made her feel just a little too weird. 

So, instead she just focused on assuring her friend that he hadn’t passed any boundaries that he shouldn’t have, and that she wasn’t at all upset with him for what had happened. It took a few moments before it seemed he was really convinced, but eventually it did seem to work.

“I’m going to make some nachos. Do you want any?” Marco asked as he walked towards the kitchen. 

“That sounds great. Thanks,” Star said in return, smiling at her friend as he stepped into the other room. 

As soon as he was gone, she frowned; not so much because she was upset, but because she was deep in thought.

She couldn’t help but think about how she had felt when Marco had been holding her. It really had felt nice, once the initial awkwardness had faded.

In fact, it felt a bit like how she had felt when they were…together when she’d gone through Mewberty. Except, she thought to herself as her cheeks began to burn from the memory of what had happened that day, nowhere near as intense. 

But, that didn’t make sense. She had gone through Mewberty months ago, so why was she still feeling this way about her best friend?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Starsitting" was one of those episodes that I knew I had to show Star going through the experiences of what happened in the episode. It's basically an episode where she and Marco get to play parents to Buff Frog's tadpoles, and in the context of this story, it's even more significant, considering it's also practice for when their own baby is born. 
> 
> I can definitely tell you that Star takes the lessons she learned from this experience to heart, both about how to care for a baby - and how difficult it can be, even with help - and the fact that having fun does sometimes have to be put aside when you have greater responsibilities.
> 
> And we also get to learn that the baby is going to be a girl (and before anyone asks, I do have her name figured out, but it won't be revealed until after she's born). The idea of using the magical bursts to determine the sex of an unborn baby for Royal Butterflies came from discussions with my friend, Malthus1 on reddit (who may as well be counted as co-creator for this AU, considering how much he's helped with developing the concept and story). We talked about how girls in the family seem to naturally have a stronger affinity for magic than boys, and thought that the idea could also apply to when they're in the womb. And thus came the concept that girls will not only have more frequent and powerful bursts during development, but that they'll continue causing said bursts for long.
> 
> We also get some hints that Star is beginning to feel...different towards Marco, even if she doesn't exactly know why she feels that way. 
> 
> And, before anyone asks, no, I did not mean to write "Solaria" when I mentioned that one of Star's ancestors had a daughter named "Solaris." The two characters are not the same person - in my version of the Butterfly family, there was a Queen named Solaris, and Solaria was later named in honor of her. 
> 
> The names of the princes mentioned at that point do fit into the space-theme that most of the Butterflies seem to have. You could probably also guess Aster came from the word asteroid, but Bode is a little more obscure - it's the name of a lunar crater.


	8. Chapter 8

Star began to nibble on the end of her pencil as she stared at the math problems in front of her, her mind split between actually trying to solve them and just giving up and writing down whatever answer felt right to her.

She still wasn’t sure why they had to do homework; wasn’t the work they did at school enough?

But, homework was apparently a part of going to school on Earth, so it was something she had to do. She just wished it wasn’t so hard, or was at least more fun to do. This was literally the exact same thing they did at school earlier that day, just without Miss Skullnick there to actually teach them.

It didn’t help that Marco had already finished, meaning she couldn’t even talk with him while they worked to help make the whole thing at least a little more entertaining. 

To be fair, her friend had offered to help her with the work, but she’d told him not to worry about it. Star had wanted to do it herself, figuring it wouldn’t take her that long to finish the paper. 

Now, after almost half an hour of just staring at the numbers on the page without making any significant progress, she was starting to wonder if maybe she should have taken Marco up on his offer. 

She was also starting to consider using her magic to her to finish up the homework faster, even without Marco helping her. 

Though, considering she was still having her magic bursts fairly often, she realized that maybe using magic on her homework wouldn’t be the best idea. 

A sudden ringing sound from upstairs caught the princess’s attention, pulling her both out of her thoughts and away from the problems in front of her. 

“I’ll get it!” she announced, pushing herself away from the table and running upstairs without waiting for a response from Marco, who had been sitting in the living room watching television while she did her homework. 

Considering the sound had been coming from her mirror, she probably didn’t need to make the announcement…but she kind of wanted to anyway. 

Her enthusiasm faded somewhat when she got up to her room and discovered who was making the call: her mother. 

“Maybe I could just ignore it this time…” Star muttered to herself as she eyed the button that would pick up the call. It wasn’t that she didn’t love her mother, but usually when she called, it had something to do with princess lessons or something else like that, and Star just didn’t want to listen to a lecture right now. 

So…she ignored it. But, she wasn’t ready to go back downstairs and do her homework, so she just lay down on her bed and closed her eyes, trying to relax for a few minutes. 

Not exactly the easiest thing to do, not only because of the ringing mirror, but also because of this little nagging feeling in the back of her mind, and the odd feeling in the pit of her stomach; and she had a weird feeling they were connected.

“Look, I know she just gives me those lectures because she loves me and wants me to be the best Queen I can be, but I just don’t want to deal with any of that right now” she said aloud to the empty room, placing her hand on top of her stomach. 

Star swore she felt a slight twinge in her stomach in response and she let out a sigh. 

“Trust me, sweetie, your grandma can get kind of tiring sometimes. You’ll find that out when you meet –“ Star suddenly cut herself off with a small choking noise as her words caught in her throat thanks to a sudden sob. 

She quickly wiped away the tears that had formed in her eyes, and cleared her throat before she could actually start crying. She managed to do it, but the mood in the room was now much more somber than before. 

Now that she had brought it up, she suddenly remembered that her daughter wasn’t ever going to get to meet her mother – not really. 

As soon as the baby was born and everyone knew Star had broken the law, she would be exiled; never to see her family from Mewni again, and they would have to pretend like she never even existed. At best, her mother might see the baby once before they had to leave Mewni forever, and the princess wasn’t quite sure if that counted as actually meeting.

It also reminded her that the amount of time she had to see and talk to her mother was limited, and it was running out quicker than she wanted to acknowledge. In less than half a year, she was going to have the baby; and as soon as that happened, she was never going to see her family again. 

Star continued to stare at the ceiling as the thought sank in, everything else seeming to fade away into white noise. 

“Call from Mom” came the voice of her mirror, causing her to look at it.

After just staring at the mirror for another second, she got up and pressed the button to accept the call. 

Maybe she didn’t like the lectures she often got from her mother; but she wasn’t going to intentionally make the time she had left to spend with her family any more limited than it already was. 

As the screen turned to static, Star took a breath, mentally preparing herself for the lecture she knew was coming. 

“Hi, Mom,” she said with a little wave as her mother’s image appeared on the mirror. 

Queen Moon returned the greeting, giving Star one of her fairly rare smiles. It was a small gesture, but for some reason, it really helped Star to feel more comfortable with the current situation. 

However, it did also make her wonder why exactly her mother was calling. If it was for another princess lesson or lecture, she probably wouldn’t be smiling; those were way too serious for something like that. 

Soon enough, she got her answer. 

“I just wanted to remind you that the annual family picnic is this weekend,” Queen Moon told her daughter, who suddenly brightened up at the mention of the yearly family get-together. 

The two sides of her family – the Butterfly family from her mother and the Johansens from her father – didn’t really get along too well, so they rarely actually spent much time together. 

In fact, the entire family only came together on two very specific days: Stump Day and the day of the family picnic. And while Stump Day was always…interesting, Star always looked forward to the family picnic each year, because it was always a lot more fun to see her family members interact on that day. 

Not to mention the food and the game the adults in the family would play every year…Well, all the adults except for her mother, who always chose to just sit back and watch, rather than participate. 

In fact, the only part of the family picnic Star didn’t like was the fact that she’d always had to sit at the kids’ table with her little cousins, most of whom were barely old enough that she couldn’t still call them babies. 

But, she thought to herself as she smiled, that was going to change this year. 

After all, kids didn’t have babies, so the fact that she was about to have a child of her own proved that she was too old to still be sitting with the youngest Butterflies and Johansens. 

Obviously she wasn’t going to _tell_ anyone at the picnic about the baby, but it was the principle of things. If she was old enough to be having a baby, then that meant she was also old enough to sit at the grown-up table this year; and her relatives would obviously be able to tell she was old enough now, even without that little extra information. 

Plus, considering this was going to be her last time attending the family picnic, the last thing she wanted was to be treated like a little kid. 

Then, suddenly, an idea came to her. 

“Hey, Mom? You think I could maybe bring Marco with me this year? I’m sure he’d love to come,” Star asked, looking at her mother with a hopeful expression. 

The request seemed to surprise the Queen, as she raised her eyebrows slightly. 

“Marco? Well…I don’t see why not, though I must admit I do wonder exactly why you want to invite him as well,” she said after seeming to consider the request for a few seconds. 

Her confusion wasn’t entirely unwarranted. Usually the only people who attended the family picnic were the members of each family, and their servants. There was only one exception to this unspoken rule…

”Star?” Moon began, “Are you and Marco…in a relationship?” 

Star instantly felt her cheeks heat up at the question, and she quickly tried to clarify things for her mother. 

“No, no, it’s nothing like that – we’re just friends, that’s all” she insisted. She paused to see how her mother was reacting to the statement, before continuing with her explanation for why she wanted to invite her friend to the family picnic. “It’s just…I though it’d be fun to have him come with me this year, that’s all.” 

For a few moments, neither the Queen nor the princess said anything, and Star just did her best to get the heat in her cheeks to go away as she waited for her mother to actually give an answer to her question. 

At the same time, she couldn’t help but wonder why her mother had jumped to the conclusion that she and Marco were anything more than best friends. 

But, then she remember the exception to the “family only” rule for the picnic – sometimes a member of the family would bring someone as a guest, if that other person was going to eventually be their husband or their wife. 

She probably should have remember that before asking her mother if she could bring Marco along to the picnic, but in her defense, she did have a lot on her mind at the moment. It made perfect sense that a little thing like that would slip her mind for moment or two. 

“Well, I suppose it wouldn’t be an issue,” Moon said, interrupting Star’s thoughts. She had almost forgotten that her mother hadn’t actually given a proper answer to her question about bringing Marco to the picnic until she spoke up again. “But, he will have to be seated with you, and it will be your responsibility to introduce him and explain the rules of the reunion to him.” 

Star agreed to the terms her mother gave and, after seeing if there was anything else that the two of them needed to talk about, said goodbye and hung up. 

Now that the call was over, the princess found herself buzzing with excitement. 

Literally – she could hear, and feel, the tiny wings on her back fluttering rapidly as the thought of attending the picnic ran through her mind. Now she just had to tell Marco about it, and make sure he’d be ready for when they went. 

Oh, and she had to actually ask him if he wanted to go, but she didn’t think that’d really be an issue. It was like she had told her mother – she knew Marco would love to attend the family picnic with her this year. The two of them always had fun on their adventures together, and this was just going to be another adventure for the two of them – just with having her parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins there as well. 

“Marco! I have something I wanna talk to you about!” Star announced in a sing-song voice as she practically danced her way downstairs and into the living room, where Marco was still watching the same show as before, though from the little Star had been able to gather from earlier, it seemed to be a different episode.

It was probably a sign of how much he was used to the actions of his housemate that he didn’t seem at all surprised when she rushed into the room. The only time he seemed even the slightest bit effected was when she came to sit on the couch next to him, accidently bump into him in her haste; and even then, his only real reaction as to let out a sound that was somewhere between a brief cry and a gasp. 

“Sorry,” Star said, giving the Earth boy an apologetic smile as she inched away a bit, giving him room to straighten himself up again. 

Her friend gave a smile of his own in response, waving his hand to help indicate that it was no big deal.

“So, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?” he asked, adjusting the way he was sitting so that the two teens were facing one another.

“Well, there’s going to be this big family reunion picnic on Mewni this weekend – both my mom’s family and my dad’s family are going to be getting together to eat and play games and stuff like that – and I asked my mom if you could come too, if you wanted, and she said it was okay” Star explained, trying her best to both speak quickly enough to get the information across, but not so quickly that Marco wouldn’t be able to follow along with what she was saying. 

To her surprise, he seemed somewhat hesitant to respond. Apparently he didn’t notice his hesitation, as he also seemed a little taken aback when she tried to prompt him into saying something by asking if everything was okay. 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. It’s just...” Marco let out a sigh before continuing, “You said it was a family reunion, right? Are you sure the rest of your family will be okay with me being there? I know you said your mom said she was alright with it, but I don’t think its right to assume everyone’s going to share her opinion. And I don’t want to intrude on something like this.”

Star didn’t want to make him feel bad, but she couldn’t keep the scoff from escaping. It wasn’t that she didn’t care about how he felt – nothing could be further from the truth. It was just that she couldn’t understand how he could be so worried about something like this. To help him feel more comfortable, she placed a hand on his shoulder as she began to talk. 

“Marco, you are one of the most amazing people I have ever met. There is no way my family isn’t going to love having you there…even if they might not show it all that much,” she hesitated ever-so-slightly before adding that last part. 

She was certain that Marco would be welcomed by the rest of her family, but her relatives, especially on her mother’s side of the family, weren’t always the most welcoming people, at least from the outside. 

Star watched for Marco’s reaction to her reassurance, and beamed when his eyes seemed to light up a little; mission accomplished. However, she didn’t have too long to revel in her success, as she remembered the other part of her agreement with her mother. 

“But, there are some rules that you have to follow while you’re there,” she told him, pausing for a moment to gauge his response. 

He stayed silent, which she took as her cue to continue. “First, you’re going to have to sit with me while you’re there, but since you don’t really know anyone else there too well, I didn’t think you’d mind that part. You’re also not allowed to talk to any of the servants who come with the rest of my family. Unless they talk to you first, I guess. That doesn’t usually happen, though, so probably best to just not think too much about talking to them. You’re not allowed to bring any food with you…Unless maybe you’re allergic to everything being served, then I think they could make an exception. But, since the chips we use for nachos are made from corn, I think you’re all set with that. And, I guess those are the only really important rules that you have to know before we go.” 

Once again, she looked at Marco to make sure he was following along with what she was saying. The slightly confused expression on his face worried her somewhat. 

But, she took a moment to try and figure out if he’d been confused by what she’d said, or if he’d just had a hard time following her while she spoke; she had been talking kind of fast in order to try and get the information across as quickly as possible. 

In order to help figure out which it was, she asked, “Did you get all that?” 

“Yeah…Yeah, I got it” Marco replied after a moment. “And I think I can handle those rules, but how will I know who’s a servant?” 

Star just waved her hand in a somewhat dismissive way, stating that he’d know just from looking at them. “And, if you’re still confused, just ask me. I know all of the servants who work for my family, even the ones who almost never leave the castles and manors except for things like the family picnic.” 

She then went on to assure him that he shouldn’t worry too much about it, especially since the picnic wasn’t until the weekend, meaning he still had a few days to prepare himself. 

Her friend still seemed a bit unsure, but seemed to relax when she offered a smile in an attempt to reassure him. 

He thanked her – for what, exactly, she wasn’t sure – and then went back to watching the television. 

Star took the lack of further comment as an invitation for her to join him, if she wanted. And, at first, she considered it; after all, she didn’t really have much else that she could think of to do at the moment, and she always enjoyed spending time with her friend whenever possible, even if it just involved sitting together and watching shows like this. 

However, when she saw what he was watching, her opinion changed. It was one of the few shows that Marco liked to watch that she just couldn’t enjoy. It wasn’t so much that she thought it was bad, so much as she just thought it was kind of boring. And even watching a show like that with her best friend didn’t make it any less of a chore to sit through. 

So, she tried to think of something else to do to keep herself busy until either Marco was done with his show, or something else just…happened to make the day more interesting. 

Unfortunately, the only thing that came to her mind was the still incomplete math assignment that she’d left on the kitchen table when she ran upstairs to answer the call on her mirror. And that wasn’t exactly what she had in mind, to say the least. But, she supposed that doing her homework was at least marginally better than just sitting around and doing nothing. 

Though, if it took her too long to get the answers, maybe she would ask Marco for some help; not because she didn’t think she could do it eventually, but just because she’d like to get it done as quickly as possible. And, yeah, she could just put down random answers…but she did still want to get one of those A-plus and smiley faces that Marco got so often, and she knew that you had to get the answers right for that. 

Still, she couldn’t say she was looking forward to this, and didn’t even bother to try and suppress the sigh that escaped from her lips as she halfheartedly trudged over to the table to start on her homework once more. 

To her slight surprise, the problems on the paper weren’t as hard as she expected them to be; she was able to get through a good chunk of them before too long. 

However, she was only about halfway through the assignment by the time she’d reached the point where she’d decided she’d ask for help if she wasn’t already done. 

“Hey, Marco?” she called over her shoulder to where her friend was still sitting in the living room. When he looked over, silently asking what she needed, she continued, “Can you come over here and help me with this?” 

There was a part of her that was slightly embarrassed at needing to ask for help; but, Marco didn’t seem to be at all bothered by the request, and just came to sit beside her at the table. 

He refused to actually give her any of the answers, but he did explain things a little better than Ms. Skullnick had during class, and helped her work through the problems. With his help, Star finished the rest of the paper relatively quickly. 

And, while she wasn’t really sure how many of the answers she had gotten correct, she was fairly confident that she’d done pretty well; at the very least, she had a good feeling that this was going to be one of her best grades in that class thus far. 

For the rest of the day, the two friends just hung out at home together, which was just fine with the both of them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

The rest of the week passed without too much issue…minus a brief amount of time where Glossaryck pretended to be angry at Star for saying they weren’t really friends, and refused to come out of the Book of Spells, regardless of what the teens did to try and coax him out. 

And that was mostly just kind of tedious until the end, when Ludo showed up, much to Star and Marco’s shock. 

The monster’s return from the Void wasn’t even the most surprising part of this particular reunion – the fact that he had apparently gotten hold of a wand of his own was. 

When Glossaryck had finally come out of the Book and started properly speaking to her again, the princess had tried to ask questions regarding Ludo’s new wand, figuring her mentor might have some answers. 

However, while the little blue man did seem to actually listen to her questions, he just flat out refused to answer them, no matter how much she tried to prod him into actually answering. Well, okay, he did answer one question…kind of.

It was less an actual answer to her question, and more just him insisting that they shouldn’t worry too much about Ludo or his wand. It was still a lot more than she got for any other question she asked, so when he told her that, she (somewhat begrudgingly) decided to drop the subject, at least for the time being. 

Maybe she’d bring it up again in the future, but for now, she had other things to think about; namely, the family picnic.

The day had finally come, and it was time for them to head to Mewni for the event. Or, it would be, if Marco would stop worrying about whether he was supposed to wear something fancy or not. 

“Marco,” Star groaned, flopping down onto her best friend’s mattress, “I told you already, you don’t need to dress up. The only people who are gonna be dressed up are my mom’s family, and that’s just ‘cause I don’t think most of them own any clothes that aren’t fancy. Just wear what you have on now.”

Marco looked down at his outfit – the same jeans, shirt, and hoodie he wore pretty much every day – and then back at the princess with a slightly uncertain expression. 

“I don’t know, Star…Are you sure it’s okay for me to just wear…this?” Marco gestured to himself as he spoke. 

Despite part of her still feeling kind of frustrated that they were being held up from leaving, Star couldn’t help but also sympathize with her friend; he really was worried about this, wasn’t he? Her expression softened and she got off the bed, walking over to her friend and offering him a smile in an attempt to reassure him. 

“I promise – nobody will care about what you wear. They’re going to love having you there. I mean…why wouldn’t they?” 

She was being completely sincere with that comment; Marco was one of the most amazing people she had ever met; in her eyes, it was almost impossible to see how someone wouldn’t love him as soon as they got to know him at all. 

“Thanks, Star” Marco said, his voice kind of low. His cheeks looked a little red, but Star chose to ignore that, instead focusing on the fact that he was actually smiling now. She gave him a brief, but firm, hug, deciding to also ignore the small sound (almost like a squeak) that came from his mouth as she did so. 

As soon as she released him, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her scissors. “Are we all set?” she asked, not waiting for a response before declaring, “Then let’s get going.”

With that, she cut open a portal to the location of the picnic (it was the same place every year, so she wasn’t at all worried about the possibility of going to the wrong location) and jumped through it, grabbing Marco’s hand in order to pull him through as well. 

They exited on the other side of the portal, where they were immediately greeted with Star’s relatives, who had very different reactions to seeing her, depending on which side of the family they came from. The Butterflies greeted her curtly, with only a few even bothering to smile as they muttered their greetings and occasionally nodded at her; while the Johansens were quite boisterous with saying hello to the new arrival to the festivities, with several coming right over and giving her hugs that were so strong, she could have almost sworn she felt the air being squeezed out of her lungs before they let her go.

It wasn’t until she’d been greeted by all her relatives that someone seemed to notice Marco, and asked who he was. 

Star was more than happy to introduce him: “This is Marco Diaz. I moved in with his family back when I first started living on Earth, and we’ve been _best friends_ ever since.” 

She made sure to put some emphasis on their relationship with each other. After her mother’s response to her request about bringing Marco to the reunion, she wanted to try and preemptively cut off any potentially awkward questions regarding why she’d brought Marco along, when he was neither family nor a servant. 

To her relief, none of her relatives seemed to care enough to question why he was there, and they just went back to milling around and chatting with one another…though the two sides didn’t really interact much, if at all. 

While the royals were chatting, the servants were busy setting up the tables: the large one for the adults, and the little one for the children – most of whom were either toddling about making growling noises (mostly the Johansen kids) or quietly standing by their mothers’ skirts, sometimes moving a little closer when one of their more wild cousins came over to try and start a game. 

Marco looked between the two tables, and then looked at Star, who was practically bouncing as she eyed the adults’ table with a gleam in her eye. 

“So…where are we sitting?” he asked her, pointing at one table and then the other. 

Star couldn’t help but let out a little chuckle at the question. Oh, how naïve her friend was, to think there was any chance they’d be sitting at the kids’ table. 

“Just give me five minutes to get our seats set up” she told him, before skipping off to put her plan into action. She was aware of him starting to call her name, but considering he seemed to cut himself off before finishing, she figured it probably wasn’t anything that couldn’t wait until they were seated. And so she just continued with her plan. 

“Hi, Heinrich,” she said with a grin as she approached the big burly servant – one of the few who was helping with the food for the picnic, rather than attending to the royals.

He returned the grin and raised a hand in greeting, though he didn’t say anything; he never spoke a word that Star could remember – she only knew his name because she’d heard her relatives call him that during the previous years’ picnics. 

“It’s really great to see you again,” she said, giving him a quick hug before continuing with the conversation. “There’s something I really wanted to do to surprise my parents and my aunts and uncles, and I wanted to know him you could help me.”

Heinrich (who was quite a tall man) got down on one knee and turned his head so that his ear was facing Star, which she took as him agreeing to hear what she had planned. Star clasped her hands together in joy, and then leaned forward to whisper her plan into his ear. 

After she finished telling him the idea, she asked, “So, will you help me?”

Heinrich didn’t give a direct answer, even in his silent way. Instead, he just walked over to where they kept the presentation dishes and lifted off the cover as he knelt down in front of Star once again, giving a nod that was so slight, Star almost didn’t realize his head had moved. 

There was nothing more than needed to be said; that one act was enough for the princess to know that he was going to help her. 

The princess climbed onto the serving plate, scrunching herself up so she would fit when the whole thing was covered up, and signaled for Heinrich to put on the cover, which he did with another silent nod.

She kept herself quiet as the dish was handed over to Manfred – who probably assumed it was some kind of roast inside; after all, if she made any noise, her surprise would be ruined before she even had a chance to pull it off. It was hard, but she managed to keep herself quiet until Manfred lifted off the cover of the serving dish and she was revealed to all of her adult relatives who were seated for the start of the meal.

“Check out this big girl – sitting at the grown-up table!” Star announced as she stood up, looking over at all the adults with a wide smile on her face. 

Nobody said a word, but her mother grabbed her by the arm and helped her off of the table. 

“So, where are me and Marco gonna sit?” Star asked, looking at the seats to determine where theirs might have been. 

To her great displeasure, her mother pointed not at a pair of seat at the adults’ table, but at the kids’ table, where her little cousins were being ushered into their seats by one of the only maids in attendance. 

“You will be sitting right over there,” Queen Moon informed her daughter, the tone of her voice making it clear that she would accept no arguments on the subject. Unfortunately for her, Star didn’t have the same idea. 

“What?!” she exclaimed, causing all of the adults to look over at her. Not that she cared; she had more important things to be concerned about than her relatives thinking that she was making a scene. “You can’t seriously expect me to sit at the kids’ table this year! I’m old enough to sit with the adults, and I can prove it!” 

She saw out of the corners of her eyes that some of her relatives were starting to look amused, and could hear several of them chuckling under their breath, but when she looked back at her mother, the Queen’s expression had barely changed at all. 

Still, it did seem like she was willing to give Star a chance to argue her case, considering she said, “Alright, Star, please tell me how you intend to prove you’re old enough to sit at the adults’ table this year.” 

Star was still fuming over her treatment, and so she began to speak without really thinking about it. 

“Well, for starter’s, I’m ha-“she started to say; but fortunately, she caught herself before she could say too much…or, at least, she hoped she did. She noticed that her mother was raising an eyebrow, clearly waiting for the rest of the statement. If she didn’t say something quickly, there was a good chance that someone was going to get suspicious…

”I mean,” she started again, much calmer this time (on the outside, at least; inside her heart was definitely beating quite a bit faster than normal), “I’m already fourteen, and being a teenager is closer to a grown-up than a kid, isn’t it?” 

She gave her mother a smile, hoping maybe that would help soften her up a bit – at least enough to maybe make her see things Star’s way. But, unfortunately, it appeared the Queen was not going to budge on the subject. 

“There is a big difference between age and maturity, Star,” Moon said simply, before excusing herself to bring Star over to the kids’ table. Star felt her cheeks start to heat up, and she pulled away from her mother. 

“I can go by myself,” she grumbled, trudging towards the other table. She might have had to sit there, but she was going to take her sweet time getting to her seat. 

But, as she walked, she started to feel a little queasy, and she didn’t think it was just morning sickness (or, afternoon sickness, she guessed). She couldn’t believe that she had almost yelled out her secret to everyone, just because she wanted to sit with the grown-ups. 

Her baby girl was a million times more important than any stupid seat…even if she was still upset at having to have a seat at the kids’ table. 

“I am _so_ sorry,” she said as she approached the table. Star said the words to Marco, referring to the fact that they were being forced to sit with the little kids, but she meant it for both him and the baby. 

To his credit, Marco didn’t seem at all upset at the arrangement, and just took his seat next to Star as she plopped down in her own seat. 

“It’s not so bad,” he said, placing an ear of corn on his plate. “We still get all the Mewni corn we can eat, no matter where we sit.” 

“I guess you’re right…” Star sighed as she reached for an ear of her own and went to bite into it. However, as soon as she smell reached her nose, she felt her stomach start to churn, and she had to drop the corn to cover her mouth to ensure she didn’t get sick. 

After a moment, she tried again, figuring that it had just been a one-time deal…only for her to feel sick once again, as soon as she could smell the corn. 

Star couldn’t help but groan as she put down the ear; clearly she wasn’t going to be eating much at this particular picnic, considering her baby apparently wasn’t a fan of corn, and had zero issues with letting Star know it. Thankfully, she wasn’t exactly starving, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been; but she was still starting to get irritated. 

Her attitude wasn’t helped when one of her cousins tossed some mashed up corn at her face. Star growled and held up her wand, ready to fire off a blast – just to let some steam out. 

Marco grabbed her arm and pushed it down, helping to bring her back to the moment and remind her to keep herself calm. 

While she was still annoyed at everything that had happened over the last few minutes, she did have to admit that maybe using magic to release some of the anger wasn’t the best idea. 

Her bursts were still as frequent and unpredictable as ever, and sometimes they had really strange outcomes, like the time she’d summoned Cloudy and he’d acted like a major jerk. And with so many members of her family around, it would probably be best to avoid anything that could potentially reveal her secret. 

The sound of arguing behind her made her pause in her thoughts and she turned around in her chair to see what exactly was going on. 

Sure enough, both sides of her family were starting to get on each other’s nerves, with the tensions seeming to rise with every passing second. Star let out an excited noise; she’d been to enough family reunion picnics to know what was coming up next. 

“It’s starting to happen,” she said excitedly to herself, biting the back of her chair in anticipation. 

Her friend, of course, had no idea what she was referring to, and only briefly paused from eating his corn to ask, “What’s starting to happen?” 

Star ignored him, focused on watching as the arguments between both sides of her family got more and more intense; the excitement building within her with every shout she heard. It wouldn’t be long now…

Suddenly, the yelling stopped, and she could hear her father’s voice as he made a speech against arguing and how they should settle the issue like the royals they were. 

To some, this might have seemed like an end to the fighting; but Star knew her father better than that, and gripped her chair as she waited for the conclusion of his speech. And, sure enough, a moment later, King River pulled out a flag on a spiked pole, shouting, “Flags!” as he held it above his head. 

That one word acted as a signal and everyone on both sides of the table suddenly pulled out flags of their own…well, everyone except for Queen Moon, who couldn’t seem to decide if she was more annoyed or concerned by the development. 

Star, meanwhile, leapt out of her seat, pulling out a custom-made flag of her own. 

“C’mon, Marco! It’s time for Flags!” she declared as she started to run towards the hill, grabbing Marco by the hoodie and pulling him away from the table; and ignoring his cry of protest as she did so. 

“What’s Flags?” she heard Marco ask as they ran towards the starting line. 

Despite her eagerness to start, Star figured she should give her friend an explanation of the game they were about to play. So, she stopped running and turned to face him. 

“It’s just a game that my family plays pretty much every year,” she began. “All you have to do is take your flag and race everyone else up the hill to the top. Once you get there, you put up your flag to show that you won. And after you win, that means that you get to look down on everyone else for the whole year!” 

“So it’s like King of the Hill?” Marco asked, smiling when Star shrugged her shoulders and nodded. “I’m great at that game!” 

His enthusiasm just made Star all the more excited to get started. She grabbed her friend by the hand and started to race towards the starting line once again…only to be abruptly stopped by her mother suddenly grabbing onto her flag. 

“I’ll be taking that,” Queen Moon said, pulling the flag from her daughter’s hand, “and the two of you will be taking your seats.” 

For a moment, Star was too appalled by the treatment to say anything…but only for a moment. 

“But… _Mom_! This is so unfair! Didn’t you play Flags when you were my age?” she demanded, looking her mother straight in the eye to let her know she would not be backing down from this. 

“Yes, I did.” Queen Moon replied in her usual stern voice, “But, there are many things that I’ve done in the past that you will not be doing; not if I have anything to say about it.” 

At Star’s frustrated growl, her expression softened slightly and she spoke again, in a much gentler tone this time: “I know that it’s not fun to be the oldest at the kids’ table, but you just aren’t ready to be the youngest the adults’ table yet. Now, go and sit down until the match is over. Or, if you’d like, you could sit with me and watch the match. The choice is entirely up to you.” 

With that said, the Queen of Mewni turned around and started walking towards her spectator’s seat, leaving Star alone with Marco once again. 

“What are we going to do?” Marco asked, breaking into the silence. Star just grinned and pulled out another flag she had been hiding. 

“We’re gonna play Flags,” she told her friend. 

“But, your mom just said –“ the Earth boy began to protest, only for Star to cut him off with a wave of her hand and a few dismissive sounds. 

“I know what my mom said. But, what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her, right?” 

Without waiting for an answer (though she had a feeling she knew what it would be), she pulled out her wand and – after silently hoping that things would work out the way she wanted – fired a spell at some corn that was piled up near the kids’ table. All of a sudden, the corn arranged itself, until what looked like two corn-versions of the teens were sitting in their seats; they even had on the same clothes! 

“See?” Star said proudly, gesturing at her creations. “Now we can go play Flags, and my mom won’t even know we were gone. Until we win, but then she’ll realize that I was old enough to play, so it’s not like it’s going to matter.” 

Marco still seemed unsure, but he didn’t say anything in protest. That was enough for Star to assume that he was on board with her plan, so she took his hand and once again raced to the starting line, where they snuck their way in and awaited the start of the game. 

“Wait…if both sides of your family are against each other, then whose side are we on?” Marco questioned, looking over at Star with a confused expression. 

She mirrored his expression and answered the question: “ _Our_ side, duh.” 

There was no more time to talk as the moment after she said that, the pistol was fired and everyone started to race up the mountain, flags clasped tightly in their hands. The teens were a bit late to the start, as they had to get up off the floor first, but it didn’t take long before they were in the thick of things. 

They were actually doing very well for their first times playing, Star noted as she looked around and saw her several of her aunts and uncles falling behind her and Marco as they raced up the hill. This was even in spite of several setbacks, such as Marco getting tricked by Uncle Heartrude, and him trying to avoid stepping into the rain zone – much to Star’s irritation – because he didn’t want his socks to get wet. 

As they continued up the mountain – passing more traps and attacks on the way – Marco kept calling out protests. 

Star ignored him, focused entirely on reaching her goal. It wasn’t that she didn’t care about his opinion; but she needed to win this. She really didn’t have that long before the baby came, and once that happened, she knew her family would either just forget she ever existed, or just remember her for having disgraced both sides of the family by having a child before she was married. 

She wanted to make sure that her family would look at her with respect, at least for the time she had left for them to actually acknowledge that she even existed. Plus, it would just feel nice to win, and prove to everyone that she was more capable than so many of them assumed. 

But, then they got to the end of the last obstacle – the lava pits – and Marco said something that made her finally pause in her pursuit. 

“Star…this game is changing you. Winning no matter what…not caring who gets hurt…That’s not you.” 

Those words hit her like a ton of bricks, and she started to look around. Star felt her heart sink as she truly saw what this game was doing to her family – they were really hurting each other, with some clearly being willing to go even further than that if they deemed it necessary – and all to win some stupid game! 

She suddenly got an idea, and once again began to charge forward.

“…Star?” Marco called, the slight crack in his voice being enough to make Star pause, just for a moment. 

“Don’t worry, Marco,” she said, looking over her shoulder at her friend. “I know what I’m doing.” 

Marco lowered his hand and nodded slightly, though the concerned look didn’t leave his eyes. But, Star couldn’t worry about that right now, nor could she take the time to explain her plan. 

She charged up the hill, running as fast as she could, grabbing each of her relatives’ flags as she raced up to the top. Her heart was pounding as she ran; she knew her family members would be super angry at her for taking their flags from them, and she didn’t even want to think about what they’d do if they caught her before she could reach the top. 

She was almost at the top when someone grabbed onto her ankle, pulling her to the ground. Star turned around to see her Great-Aunt Etheria grabbing at her, pure rage in her eyes, while the rest of her relatives were quickly approaching.

“Give me flag! Give it to me!” Etheria demanded, completely ignoring Star’s desperate attempt to get out of her grip. 

After a moment, she did finally let go…only to immediately lunge at the princess, with several other members of both the Butterfly and Johansen families following suit, until Star was absolutely buried underneath the lot of them. The only thing she could do was try to squirm out of their way. 

As she tried to escape, she felt her heart start to race; would her family really hurt her – or maybe even worse – just for a game? 

She didn’t have time to truly wonder about her question, as almost immediately after, the weight was suddenly flung off of her. 

Stunned and confused, Star looked up to see the relatives who’d been attacking her hovering in midair, surrounded by a vaguely familiar blue aura. She then turned around to see her mother, in what Star had always called her “Butterfly form”, hovering above them all, her eyes glowing with magical energy as she held out her arms, holding the majority of both sides of the family in her magical grip. 

Star got up - still holding onto all of the flags she had collected - and kept staring up at her mother, her emotions torn between amazement and fear. The first coming from seeing her mother in that form, and the second coming from realizing that if her mother was here now, that must have meant she’d found out about her little trick with the corn dummies. 

“Wow, Mom, don’t you look so cool, with your magic, and your big wings,” the Mewnian princess said with a sheepish laugh, hoping to defuse the situation a little. 

The Queen clearly wasn’t amused, and she lowered herself to the ground, making her massive butterfly wings and the extra pairs of arms she’d grown vanish as she spoke.

“Star,” she began in a very rare sarcastic tone, “You’ll never guess what just happened to me – I met your twin sister. She was made of corn.” 

Star gulped and let out another nervous laugh, unable to look her mother in the eye for a moment as she continued to speak: “What’s really amazing is that I don’t even remember giving birth to her, even though I would believe anyone would remember giving birth to a corn-baby. Wouldn’t they, River?” 

Moon turned to face her husband, who had gotten quite a bit taken out of him by the events of the recent game of Flags. He started to answer her question, but his response was so slurred that she cut him off part way, and just insisted that he lay back down. The Queen then turned her attention back to Star, looking at her with a firm expression as she awaited her daughter’s response to the indirect accusation. 

“I’m sorry I tried to trick you, and I’m sorry I snuck off to play Flags, even after you told me not to. Maybe you were right – maybe I’m not ready for this,” Star said, looking at the ground as she spoke. She continued to speak, her confidence building with every word that came out of her mouth. “But…maybe the real issue is that Flags is just dumb. It puts all us against each other for something as silly as being able to look down on everyone, and that isn’t right. That’s why I wanted to take everyone’s flags up to the top, all at once. I didn’t want to win the hill for myself – I wanted to claim it for everyone.” 

As she spoke, she saw her mother’s expression soften, and at one point, she could have even sworn she looked…almost impressed. When she finished her speech, she gave a little smile, which her mother returned. 

“That was the most mature thing I’ve heard all day,” Queen Moon said to her daughter. “Perhaps I’ve misjudged you, Star. You’ve clearly grown up a lot more than I thought.” 

Those words were simple, but they meant a lot to Star, and she couldn’t contain her joy – she dropped all of the flags; wrapped her arms around her mother and hugged her tightly. She heard her mother say her name, and follow that up by saying that public displays of affection weren’t something that the Butterfly family did. 

“The Johansens, however, are wonderful at it,” the Queen said, her voice warm as both she and the princess looked to see the members of the aforementioned family embracing each other, while the rest of the Butterflies looked on with expressions of mild disdain. The two just watched in silence for a moment, until Moon spoke up again. 

“I still think it’s a little soon for you to be sitting at the adults’ table just yet,” she said, causing Star to sigh in slight frustration (even after saying she had grown up, her mother apparently still saw her as a kid – despite everything). “However, I promise you that next year will be different. Next year, you will have a seat among the adults – I have no doubt you’ll have grown enough to earn that right by then.” 

At first, Star felt nothing but elation at this statement – finally, she was going to be treated as an adult, and get to sit at the grown-up table, something she wanted for so long. But, then she fully realized what her mother had said. 

_Next year_ would be the year she’d be allowed to sit at the same table as the adults. In other words, the first year where her family would have to pretend she had never existed, never mind have her come to the picnic. Before she could stop it from happening, a small, almost inaudible sob came from her throat, choking off any words she might have tried to say. 

“Are you alright?” 

Star looked up to see her mother looking at her, her eyes filled with concern. 

She quickly wiped away the tears that had begun to form in her eyes. She wanted to lie, to say she was fine and just go back to the tables and sit down to eat – hopefully they’d serve something soon that she’d be able to stomach. 

Instead, she said, “Actually…I’m not really feeling so great. Is it okay if me and Marco head back a little early?” 

As if on cue, her friend showed up just then. There was a part of her that felt bad about making the choice of going back to Earth for him, but she figured he wouldn’t really mind; after all, if he stayed, he’d be surrounded by people he barely knew. If he did mind, then she’d do what she could to make it up to him – later. 

To her relief, her mother did give the two teens permission to leave the picnic early; clearly she believed Star when she said that she wasn’t feeling well, otherwise the princess knew that convincing her would have taken quite the effort. 

“Would you like me to schedule an appointment with the royal physician?” Queen Moon asked as Star pulled out her dimensional scissors, ready to cut open a portal to Earth. 

Star froze at the question, but was thankfully able to keep herself from freaking out (something she knew would make her mother at least a little suspicious); though her mind was still blank for a couple seconds before she was able to make herself think of a response.

“No thanks, Mom,” she said, giving a smile that she hoped would be convincing. “I think I just need to take it easy for a bit, and I’ll be fine.” 

That seemed to be enough for Moon, and the two of them shared a goodbye – with Star requesting that her mother extend the farewell to her father, when he got up again – before Star opened up the portal to Earth, ushering for Marco to follow her through.

“You sure you don’t want to go see a doctor or something?” Marco asked almost the instant they entered the living room of his house. It was fairly obvious that he was both very concerned and trying not to make it too clear, most likely out of a desire to avoid his friend getting annoyed at him. 

Star just shook her head. 

“Nah – it’s like I told my mom: I just need to relax for a bit, that’s all” she told him. Though, now that she was saying it again, she realized just how much she was trying to convince herself with the statement, as much as other people. 

Suddenly, her stomach growled – rather loudly – causing her face to begin to heat up as the blood rushed to her cheeks. She guessed she shouldn’t have been too surprised that she was hungry; after all, she hadn’t been able to eat anything at the picnic, and she’d avoided eating before they went, since she had assumed she would be able to eat her fill while she was there. 

Chuckling sheepishly, she added, “But, I guess I should maybe get something to eat first…” 

Marco just smiled, clearly not intending to make any comment about the noise her stomach had just made. “Sounds good to me,” he said, walking towards the kitchen, “What would you like?” 

“Burritos,” Star answered immediately, surprising even herself with both just how quickly the word came out of her mouth, and how enthusiastic she sounded. She hadn’t even had anything specific in mind, but as soon as he’d asked what she wanted to eat, she was hit was a fairly intense craving for the little meat-filled wraps. 

Marco paused and turned to look at Star, raising an eyebrow slightly in confusion as he asked, “You want a burrito? You know that’s probably not the best thing to eat if you’re not feeling well. Actually, it’s not exactly the best thing to eat in general, now that I’m thinking of it.” 

“Oh, well, then I guess I’ll have something else, instead,” Star said, doing her best to keep herself calm. 

This shouldn’t be too much of a problem; while she was pretty sure this was one of those cravings that wouldn’t go away until it was satisfied, she also figured she could just sneak away and get a burrito when Marco was either sleeping or just doing something else. 

However, just as she was trying to figure out exactly how she was going to put her plan into action, she noticed that Marco was holding up his hand – a silent request for her to either stop talking or stop worrying; or possibly both. 

“It’s okay,” he told her. “I still think it’s not the best idea, but if you want a burrito, I can run by Britta’s Tacos real quick and pick us up a couple.”

He didn’t wait for a response, but that was most likely because he knew he didn’t need one. Marco quickly went upstairs, stating that he needed to grab some cash for the burritos. After a little over a minute – or probably less, Star wasn’t really paying too much attention to the details right now – he came back down, telling his friend that he’d be right back, before leaving to get their food.

Thankfully, Star knew that it wasn’t too far away, even by walking, so she wasn’t too worried about the wait. Instead, she just decided to make herself comfortable, quickly running to her room to grab a blanket to snuggle up in as she climbed onto the couch and turned on the television, flipping through channels until she found something she liked. Her stomach growled again, even louder than before. 

“Don’t worry; we’ll be getting our burritos soon. Just wait a few minutes, okay?” she said, looking down at her stomach and placing a hand there as she spoke. She knew she was alone, so she didn’t worry about talking out loud to the baby – even if she knew that she probably couldn’t understand a word she was saying, or if the unborn child could hear what she was saying in the first place. 

Still, whether her words were understood or not, her stomach seemed to quiet, so she didn’t worry too much about it; deciding instead to just make herself comfy as she waited for Marco to return with their food. 

He came through the door a bit later, just as the show was coming back from commercials. 

“They had a deal where you got free churros if you ordered two or more burritos,” Marco said, placing the take-out bag on the coffee table and pulling out the contents, starting with a foil-wrapped burrito, which he handed over to an eagerly awaiting Star. “So, I guess we’ve got dessert after we’re done with these…if you want any, I mean. If not, I can save them for later.” 

Star wasn’t really listening; she was more focused on her burrito, which smelled like it was going to be the most amazing thing she’d ever eaten. 

Her mouth was watering as she tore away the foil that was helping to keep the food warm, allowing the smell to become even stronger; which just made her feel all the hungrier. Once the foil was gone, she began to eat. 

From the moment she swallowed the first (admittedly fairly large – she was really hungry, to be completely fair) bite, she felt her hunger starting to fade away. 

That was the best thing about magical cravings: they might not let you feel full until you satisfied them, but once you got the food, the hunger issue got solved super quickly. So, by the time she was done with the burrito, she was pretty much full…though she was pretty sure she had enough room for at least a couple of the free churros Marco had gotten with the order. 

Part of her felt a little bad reaching into the bag to pull out the sweet sticks, since Marco was still only about halfway done with his own burrito. But, she tried to make herself feel better, by assuring herself that she was just going to take a few, and leave more than enough for him to have some once he was finished eating. 

That was enough to convince her, and she grabbed a couple churros from the bag, taking a bite out of one and happily licking her lips to taste the cinnamon-sugar that had been left there. 

She was about to take another bite, when suddenly Marco asked, “So, are your family reunions always like that?” 

He didn’t need to elaborate; Star knew exactly what he was talking about. She took a moment to respond…mostly because she really wanted to finish her snack; at least the one she’d already started eating. 

After she finished her churro, she answered the question. 

“Pretty much, yeah. I mean, some years they manage to get along for a bit longer, and other times, they do things like have wrestling matches or swordfights or other things like that before they start playing Flags. But, it never really matters, since everything’s always settled with Flags in the end,” she explained, the first part of her statement slightly muffled, due to her still chewing on the last bite of churro in her mouth. “One year, they did a tug-of-war before Flags, and my dad even let me help. It was really fun, and one of the only times I got to take part in the really fun parts of the picnic before today.” 

She stuck the end of her remaining churro into her mouth and muttered, “I’m really gonna miss ‘em.” 

“What do you mean you’re going to miss them? Doesn’t your family have one of these picnics every year?” Marco asked, placing the empty wrapped on the table as he finished his burrito. 

Star squeaked; she hadn’t realized that she’d been talking loud enough for him to hear…or that she’d been thinking out loud in the first place. 

“Yeah, they do,” she said, eyes darting around as she desperately tried to think of a believable reason for what she said. “But, if they actually listened to what I said back on the hill, then this might be the last year they do any of those competitions. I know I said they were kind of dumb, but they were still part of the fun of the picnics, so I’m going to miss not having them anymore.” 

Marco’s confusion seemed to fade, replaced by what could only be described as a look of sympathetic understanding. A few seconds passed, during which neither of them spoke, and the only sound was the audio of the show that Star had left running while the two of them ate and talked. 

“Maybe you could still have those games,” Marco said suddenly, catching Star’s attention. “You only showed them that they shouldn’t put the competition above each other; that doesn’t mean your family couldn’t still have competitions. It just means they would be a little more about fun than just being about who wins and who loses.” 

Despite the fact that what he was talking about wasn’t really the issue, Star found herself being comforted by his words, and she allowed herself to smile. 

That was just one of the things she loved about him – he always knew what to say to make her feel better; and how to help her with so many things – not just fighting monsters and having adventures, but even more important things, like helping her realize just how much Flags and wanting to win was turning her into someone she didn’t want to be. 

“Thanks, Marco. For everything,” she said softly, turning her attention back to both the snack in her hand and the program on the TV screen. 

Her friend didn’t say anything, but the princess saw him smile slightly out of the corner of her eye, so she knew he’d heard what she had said. 

After a little time had passed, Star lifted up her blanket, using her head to motion for Marco to get closer, so he could get underneath it as well. 

He hesitated, looking unsure; despite the fact that it’d been over three months since “the incident”, and since they’d agreed to pretend it never happened, it seemed like he was debating whether he should get so close to her. Finally, he seemed to make up his mind, and moved closer, inch by inch. 

“Marco, it’s fine – just get under the blanket,” Star said, starting to lose her patience with how slowly her friend was moving. 

That seemed to be enough for Marco, as he quickly moved close enough so that Star could drape the blanket over his shoulders as well as her own – though he pointedly kept some distance between the two of them. 

The two of them sat, just like that, watching TV and eating their churros, for about an hour. During that time, the two of them unconsciously moved closer to each other, until there was only a slight bit of space between them. 

When they first noticed the proximity to one another, they were a bit awkward and offered to move apart…only to simultaneously agree that they really didn’t mind the closeness; it actually felt kind of nice, like old times. 

Neither of them had directly said anything, but they both knew that they had missed this, maybe more than anything else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to say right now that this is going to be the closest that Star ever comes to revealing her pregnancy to her parents; after this point, she is going to be even more careful to avoid them even becoming suspicious that she could be hiding something, never mind exactly what she's hiding. 
> 
> That near slip was actually a major factor in my decision to have this be one of the episodes that would get some degree of focus, rather than just being mentioned as having happened, or skipped over entirely. Because as I was thinking about what to do for this chapter, it dawned on me that, in this AU, Star has what she views as objective proof that she's too old to be considered a "kid": she's having a baby of her own - though, as anyone could tell you, that doesn't prove you're an adult, but Star thinks that's good enough. 
> 
> Plus, I wanted her to really start to get hit by just how much she's going to be losing in such a short amount of time. She knows the law, and knows that as soon as the word gets out that she broke the law about having a baby out of wedlock, then she's going to lose basically everything she's known for most of her life. And that's going to effect her.


	9. Chapter 9

Maybe it was because she’d just been to her family picnic a couple of days before, but Star found herself even more bored than usual in Miss Skullnick’s math class; and from the looks of it, most of the class was thinking the same thing. Marco seemed to be the only one who was actually paying attention, while the others were either just staring blankly ahead or seemed ready to fall asleep right at their desks. 

Star was able to keep herself awake, but just barely. 

Vaguely aware of the fact that Miss Skullnick was talking – though she wasn’t exactly sure what, besides assuming it had something to do with math – Star pulled out her wand and began to play around with it. 

Normally she wouldn’t just be fiddling with her wand in the middle of class, but when she was bored, she liked being able to keep her hands busy. As she fiddled with the wand, she heard a small squeaking noise coming from nearby. She turned her head to see Miss Skullnick’s hamster, Marisol, sitting in her cage, looking just as bored and tired as the students. 

“You bored, too, Marisol?” Star asked the hamster in a low voice. Obviously she wasn’t really expecting the animal to answer, though she took the following squeak as affirmation. After all, it was easy enough to tell that the hamster wasn’t exactly happy with the current situation, whether her displeasure actual came from boredom or not. 

“Yeah, me too” she said, sighing as she turned the wand over in her hands. “Really wish I could hel-!” 

Star’s quiet comment was cut off with a squeak of her own as a blast of magical energy suddenly shot out of her wand…and hit Marisol. 

The situation was already bad enough, and was made even worse by the fact that the noise her wand had created when it fired off the spell had been enough to get everyone’s attention, meaning all eyes were on her. Which also meant that everyone, including Miss Skullnick, saw what happened next. 

At first, Marisol seemed completely fine, like nothing had happened to her; then, all of a sudden, she began to grow and shift, until she had turned into a vaguely-hamster-looking monster that was several times bigger than she had originally been. 

The transformed Marisol began to chomp on the wires of her cage, biting through them with ease and managing to climb out and onto the countertop while the students and teacher watch in horror, too stunned to react at the moment. 

It wasn’t until the now monstrous Marisol began to ram her head into the window that Miss Skullnick seemed to become conscious enough to react. 

“Marisol! No!” she screamed, racing over to the counter, presumably to grab her pet before she could finish her current project. 

Unfortunately, before she could reach her, the monster-hamster managed to shatter the glass, leaving a hole just large enough for her to fit through. All of a sudden, Marisol transformed back into a normal hamster; apparently Star’s accidental spell had already worn off, much to her relief. 

However, that feeling of relief did not last long, as the hamster still leapt out of the hole she had smashed in the window, escaping to the outside part of the school’s campus before Miss Skullnick could get a hold of her. 

The students all watched in silent fear as their teacher whipped around, rage showing in both her facial expression and how she was standing. Star in particular wanted nothing more than to just get out of there, which was an understandable though, considering she knew the majority of that anger was about to be directed at her.

“Why did you do that to my Marisol?!” Miss Skullnick cried, clutching at the top of the princess’s desk hard enough to crack it. 

Despite being genuinely kind of scared, Star also felt a little bad for her teacher; it was clear that she did love that hamster. 

“I’m sorry, Miss Skullnick,” she began, the guilt starting to set in just now – though she knew she couldn’t have helped having a burst at the moment, she did realize that maybe she should have thought about the possibility of it happening before she started playing with her hand in the middle of class. “It was an accident. I swear I didn’t mean to do it.” 

She couldn’t help but jump slightly as her teacher released her desk, only to immediately follow it up by slamming her hands on the desk top. 

Star was about to ask if she was okay, but stopped when she noticed that the yellow-green eyes were narrowed at her. The fact that the next sound out of Miss Skullnick’s mouth was a low growl made the princess of Mewni all the more certain that she should probably keep quiet for a few more minutes. 

“I don’t care about that! You just go and get my Marisol back to me safely, or else you’ll be spending the rest of the year in detention!” Miss Skullnick shouted, jabbing her finger at the whole her hamster had jumped out of as she administered the threat. 

Star, not having any idea what “detention” was supposed to be, didn’t respond to the order at first. Instead, she turned around to look at Marco, giving him a look to try and silently ask what their teacher was talking about. Since he clearly didn’t want to anger the troll-teacher any more, the boy simply shook his head while giving Star an expression of obvious disdain. That was enough for her to figure that whatever detention was, she didn’t want any part of it. 

So, apparently she was going to be going out to look for the missing hamster; which also meant getting out of class for a while. 

Actually, now that she was really thinking about it, Star realized that this particular instance of her magic acting up actually worked in her favor. 

“Don’t worry, Miss Skullnick,” the princess said, heading towards the door to the hallway. “I’ll get Marisol back to you in no time at all – and I promise she will be better than ever!” 

The only response Miss Skullnick gave was a low growl. That was enough for Star, and the princess quickly excited the classroom, ready to start looking for Marisol, as she had promised. The problem with that, as she quickly realized upon stepping into the hallway, was that she had no idea where to start her search. 

If Marisol was still that weird hamster-monster-thing…well, then she’d have to figure out how to change her back, but at least it would probably be easier to figure out where she’d run off to; it’d be pretty hard to miss something like that. But, finding a tiny little hamster in a place like Echo Creek Academy wasn’t going to be easy, especially on her own. 

She briefly considered using her magic to either just summon Marisol to her, or help her track down the animal, but ultimately decided against it. 

Her bursts were still quite unpredictable, and considering the promise she’d made to her teacher, she figured it’d be best to not risk accidently doing anything worse to the poor creature. 

“Guess that’s mean I’m doing some walking,” Star muttered to herself as she started doing just that, heading down the hall. 

As she walked and scanned the floor for a sign of the hamster, she occasionally called out Marisol’s name, hoping that would get her teacher’s pet to come out of wherever she’d run to. Star was so busy with her task that she didn’t realize that someone had crossed her path until it was too late and she ended up smacking into the other person. 

“Sorry about that,” she said once she’d gotten over the slight shock that had come from the collision. She looked to see who she had bumped into, and was a little surprised to see...”Janna?” 

Star’s face screwed up slightly in confusion as she looked around – the hall was empty besides the two of them, so she assumed that classes were still going on – and then looked back at her classmate.

“Are you looking for a hamster, too?” she asked, gaining a confused look of her own from Janna. 

“What?” the other girl asked, briefly raising an eyebrow before going back to a more neutral expression. “I just got kinda bored during science, so I decided to stretch my legs for a bit. I already got sent to D-Ten for the day, so not like I have to worry about that, and trust me, getting out of that class is definitely worth it, anyway. What about you?” 

Star had been only half-listening to Janna’s explanation, having gone back to trying to find Marisol. However, she did hear the question, and decided it wouldn’t do any harm to answer it. 

“I accidentally turned Miss Skullnick’s hamster into a monster and she jumped out a window, so now I gotta find her or I’m going to have to spend the rest of the year in this ‘detention’ thing,” she said, scanning the floor for any sign of the hamster. 

As she looked, she thought she heard Janna comment that what she had done was cool. That wasn’t enough to distract her from her task; though the sound of footsteps following behind her as she walked did start to make her mind drift away from her current task. She tried to focus on what she was doing and kept walking. 

Her own footsteps were followed by a near echo, a sound that was similar, but not quite the same. It seemed that someone – or maybe something – had decided to start following her around the school as she performed her search. At first, she tried to ignore it, hoping that they would just decide to go away; not that she couldn’t handle whatever it was, but she’d really rather not have to do any fighting during school; even if they never got angry, Star didn’t want to have the school call Marco’s parents over any potential damage that she might accidentally do to the building during a potential fight. 

It soon became clear, however, that whatever was following her wasn’t going to leave her alone – at least, not without a little persuasion. 

She reached for her wand, gripping the handle tightly in her hand. As her fingers wrapped around the handle of the wand, she began to concentrate on charging the wand to create a blast of just magical energy; she wasn’t sure what was behind her, and figured it’d be best to use a spell that wouldn’t do too much damage, but hopefully still be enough to make them decide to leave her be. 

With a silent hope that the blast would come out like she wanted – and not end up being effected by one of her magic bursts – the princess whipped around and brandished her wand, aiming it at the thing that had been following her. As soon as she saw who it was, she immediately released the wand, cutting off the blast before it could happen. 

Which was a huge relief, as otherwise she would have given Janna a blast to the face at point-blank range, and she was fairly sure that would have been enough to do some serious damage to the Earth girl. 

“Why are you following me?” Star asked once she had gotten over the initial shock of seeing that Janna had been the one tailing her the whole time, reaching down to pick up her dropped wand as she spoke.

In response, Janna just shrugged; if she had felt any fear over what had nearly happened, she was doing an excellent job of hiding it. 

“Like I said, I was bored, and your thing about tracking down a monster hamster sounded pretty cool,” she said. Star took a moment to think about what her classmate had said, and realized that it did sound like a reasonable explanation. 

Plus, having someone else along for the search would only help her, since with two people looking for Marisol, they’d probably find her that much faster. Still, she did feel like she had to clarify something for Janna, before she was left disappointed by the results of the search. 

“It would be pretty cool, I guess…but Marisol isn’t a monster anymore,” Star confessed as she started walking again, with Janna walking casually behind her after a few steps. “Or, at least, she shouldn’t be – the last time I saw her, the spell had worn off and she was back to normal, but I guess it’s possible she might have changed back while she’s been gone…” 

Star continued to walk down the hall and look for Marisol, but while she did that, she listened for Janna’s response to her last statement. 

To her slight surprise, the other girl just made a noncommittal sound; Star could practically see her shrugging, even though Janna was walking behind her at the moment. 

“Still gives me something to do, so I guess I’ll hang around for a bit” she said, her voice becoming slightly louder and clearer as she got closer to the Mewnian princess, until the two were walking side-by-side. 

The two girls continued to walk around the school, occasionally explaining the situation to any teachers who bothered to ask why they were in the halls while class was supposed to be in session, as they looked for Marisol. 

Though, in all honesty, Star was the only one really looking all that hard for the hamster. It wasn’t that Janna wasn’t looking, but it was also pretty clear that she wasn’t quite as invested in locating Miss Skullnick’s missing pet as her companion was. 

Star didn’t really mind too much; she was still sort of helping, and it was just nice to not have to be alone for the whole thing. 

The two of them even started talking after a bit, and it turned out that Janna was actually a lot more fun to be around than Star had originally thought. Sure, she’d never really thought poorly of her classmate, but until now, they never really had any reason to hang out outside of when they had classes together, which didn’t really count; at least, not if you asked Star. But, now that they were spending time together and talking, she was becoming more and more interested in the possibility of maybe making this a more frequent thing, and officially starting up a friendship with the other girl. 

They didn’t really talk about anything too important; it was mostly stuff like what kinds of movies they liked, what they thought about certain classes and teachers, and Janna seemed especially interested in Star’s magic, which she referred to as being “witchy stuff” until Star corrected her terminology – she wasn’t a witch, she was a magical princess, and there was a big difference between the two. 

She had been prepared to explain the difference, but there ended up being no need for that, as Janna just accepted the answer with a shrug as they continued their search. 

“So, why’d you turn Miss Skullnick’s hamster into a monster, anyway?” Janna asked suddenly after a few moments of silence had passed. 

Not really paying too much attention as she thought she had seen something and wanted to investigate, Star answered the question somewhat absentmindedly: “It was an accident. I was messing around with my wand, cause I was bored, and my magic’s been really crazy for the past couple months, so I ended up doing a spell without really meaning to.” 

It wasn’t until Janna’s offhand response, where she asked if the accidental magic was supposed to be normal, that the princess realized that maybe she was saying a little too much. 

She wasn’t sure how nervous she should be in this situation; even if Janna did start to suspect something, or even figure it out, what were the chances she’d tell Marco, or even anyone who would tell him? 

But, she could still feel her heartbeat begin to quicken, and could have sworn she felt some sweat starting to form on her forehead as she tried to think of what to say next. 

“Oh, yeah, it’s totally normal for magic to be…weird like that…” she said distractedly, glancing around in the hopes of spotting Marisol, thus giving her an excuse to end the conversation. When that hope wasn’t answered, she instead decided to try changing the subject. 

And the first thing that came to her mind was: “What’s detention like? I mean, I’m guessing it’s not supposed to be anything good, but what is it actually like?” 

For a moment, Janna almost seemed surprised – something that seemed to be a rare occurrence from what Star had been able to observe during their time as schoolmates; it normally didn’t appear like anything really phased Janna all that much, so it appeared that Star had hit some kind of a button. 

The surprise melted away almost instantly as Janna once again showed her usual cool, almost-entirely-neutral expression; only the slight smile kept the expression from being completely devoid of emotion. 

“Yeah, everyone says that it sucks, and I guess it kinda does, if you don’t know how to deal with it,” Janna explained as they walked, Star half-listening to her and half-focused on trying to locate any signs indicating where Marisol might have scampered off to. She was paying enough attention to ask follow-up questions – namely inquiring as to what you’d have to do to deal with being in detention. 

Apparently Janna found that funny, considering the short chuckle she gave after Star had asked the question. That gave Star pause, and she looked over at Janna with a slightly offended expression. What, exactly, had she said that was so funny? 

“You don’t have to look like that – I wasn’t laughing at you, you know,” Janna said when she saw the expression on the princess’s face. “It’s just kinda funny that anyone would want to ask me for advice. About something that doesn’t involve creepy stuff, I mean – that’s something everyone asks me about. But, all you gotta do to deal with D-Ten is just make your own fun, and that’s easier than pretty much anyone thinks. Heck, me and the other full-timers pretty much just use it as our time to hang out and watch wrestling. You should think about getting thrown in there sometime, Star. Pretty sure you’d get to be the Mayor the second you walked through the door.” 

Now Star had to admit she was starting to become intrigued. Based on how Miss Skullnick had used it as a threat, and Marco’s silent answer when she’d wanted to ask about it, she had assumed that detention was something horrible – like a slightly less awful version of St. Olga’s School for Wayward Princesses. But, to here Janna describe it, it really didn’t sound bad at all; in fact, it actually sounded like it’d be a lot of fun. 

Maybe she would go to detention one day, just to find out what it was really like. If it did end up seeming like it’d be horrible, she could just use her wand and escape. 

A squeak caught Star’s attention, cutting off her thoughts as she whipped around, hoping to catch a glance of the source. Luckily for her, she did spot Marisol – and even better, she wasn’t too far away. 

However, her luck didn’t last long, as while the hamster wasn’t too far away from where the girls were standing, she was much closer to the open end of a pipe, which she climbed inside before Star could get to get, despite the Mewman girl running as fast as she could to grab the little creature before she could get out of sight. 

Star got onto the floor in front of the pipe, sticking her hand inside the opening in the hope that she could grab Marisol and pull her out. Being a Mewman, she was able to twist her arm a bit more than a human would be able to without hurting it too much...but it didn’t end up helping much, as the hamster was just out of her reach; she could feel the animal’s fur with her finger tips, but no matter how much she tried to stretch, couldn’t do much else. 

With frustrated groan – a bit of effort, as her arm did get a little stuck when she tried to stretch to grab Marisol – Star pulled her arm out of the pipe, rubbing it to alleviate the slight soreness and hopefully mitigate the marks she knew would be forming there. 

Busy grumbling to herself, she didn’t notice Janna had walked up to her until the other girl asked, “So…she’s in the pipe, then?” 

Star nodded in response, rubbing her arm and looking at Marisol’s hiding place, trying to think of how she was supposed to get her out. Sure, now that Janna had told her more about what detention was apparently like, she was considering going there sometime; but that didn’t mean she wanted to go today, and it definitely didn’t mean she wanted to go there for the rest of the year, like Miss Skullnick had promised would happen if she didn’t return Marisol to the teacher. 

“Why don’t you just use that wand of yours to get her out?” Janna asked, tapping the aforementioned object as she brought it up. “It can do that, right?” 

Briefly, Star’s eyes lit up at the suggestion, and she went to reach for her wand…only to pause right as the tips of her fingers just barely brushed the handle of the device. Janna was right in assuming that she _could_ use magic to get Marisol out of the pipe; that much was true. But, that was also assuming that the spell worked as intended, and that was one thing that Star knew she couldn’t count on happening. And if it didn’t work like she wanted, then the best case scenario would probably result in Marisol being zapped away to another place – meaning they’d have to start their search all over again; and the worst case scenario would probably be that the creature would get badly hurt, or worse. 

Neither of which seemed like particularly good options to Star. Which meant that she was back to trying to figure out how to get the hamster to come out of the pipe, or at least crawl out enough that Star could reach in and actually grab her. 

“That’s probably not the best idea,” she said once she realized she’d never actually answered Janna’s question. “My magic’s been really…weird for the past few months, and I’m pretty sure that Skullzy will do a lot worse than just give me detention if I accidentally hurt Marisol with my magic.” 

At this explanation, Janna’s face took on a thoughtful expression, and she started to examine the pipe – for what reason, the princess had no idea, as she couldn’t see anything noteworthy about the object. She then reached into her bag and pulled out what looked like a tin of potato chips. 

Star’s eyes lit up as she realized what Janna was planning to do. 

“Are we gonna use those chips to make her come out?” she asked, eagerly reaching for the tin, pouting slightly when Janna pulled it away before she could get her hands on it. 

Janna looked amused as she corrected Star, saying, “Not exactly,” and holding the tin closer so the other girl could see it. Now curious, Star took a closer look at the tin, inspecting it closely. 

She honestly had no idea what her new friend – and by this point, she did think it felt right to call Janna a friend – was planning to do with the chip-tin that didn’t involve using the chips as bait. 

It was at that moment that she noticed something very strange – what looked like tiny holes pricked into the plastic lid of the tin; air holes, most likely. That discovery just raised further questions – namely, why were there air holes in something that was used for holding potato chips? As far as she was aware, those didn’t need to breathe…

Star voiced her confusion to Janna, whose smirk just grew into a grin as she motioned for the blonde girl to come closer. Star did as she was told, and when she was close enough, Janna lifted up the lid of the tin, allowing her to look inside. Inside of the tin, curled up tightly but still apparently comfortable, was a snake – pretty small, but clearly still alive, if the slight bits of movement and the soft hissing were any indication. 

“Awww, he’s so cute!” Star cooed at the snake, who flicked his tongue out in apparent response. 

Her tone went from adoration to questioning as she added, “But how is a snake going to help us get Marisol out of the pipe?” 

Rather than explain, the dark-haired girl just popped off the lid and tilted the can to allow the snake inside to slide out onto her open hand. She then walked over to the pipe, motioning for Star to watch, which she did – both because Janna clearly wanted her to, but also just because she was super interested to see where this was going to go. 

As she watched, Janna closely examined the pipe, as though looking for something; and when she apparently found it, she held the snake in her hands close to the side of the pipe. 

“How is that gonna –“ Star began, cutting herself off when she heard the sound of squeaking coming from inside the pipe. The squeaking was very obviously coming from Marisol, and it was also very clear from the sound that she was scared of something – no, she was scared of the _snake_ that Janna was holding up to the pipe. 

The delinquent girl began to slowly lower herself down to the ground, holding the hissing reptile up to the side of the pipe the entire time.

It was at that moment that Star realized exactly what her newest companion had in mind, and she quickly went to play her part in the plan, stepping in front of the opening of the pipe and cupping her hands in front of the opening. 

Within seconds, Marisol came darting out of the pipe and straight into Star’s open hands. 

“Gotcha!” the princess exclaimed as she grabbed onto the hamster, who continued her panicked squeaking even as the girl held onto her, tight enough to prevent her from escaping, but gently enough to not do any harm. 

Seeing that Marisol was still clearly terrified, Star did her best to try and calm her down; she did feel bad about having to scare her out of her hiding place, even if it was necessary. 

“It’s okay, Marisol, I’m not gonna hurt you,” she told the shivering ball of fur in her hands as she gently stroke her head with her thumbs in an attempt to calm her, keeping her voice soft to help with the effort. After a few minutes of this, Marisol finally seemed to settle down, relaxing as Star held her, still gently petting the top of her head. 

Star smiled at the now relaxed hamster, and then lifted her head to give the same grin to Janna. 

“Thanks for helping me get her out – I really owe you one,” she told the other girl, who just shrugged and waved her hand dismissively.

“Don’t mention it,” Janna told Star. “Like I said, I was bored and you’re actually pretty cool to hang around, even if I do kinda wish I’d actually gotten to see you do some of that magic stuff.” 

Star did feel a little guilty about that, and tried to think of a way that she could make up for Janna’s disappointment in the lack of spells. Her first thought was to simply use her wand and just perform a simple summoning spell or something similar; but she quickly realized that might not be the best idea, just because of the risk of something going wrong and causing her to have to take more time to take care of it. Normally she wouldn’t actually be bothered with the idea, but considering she also had to get Marisol back to Miss Skullnick, she figured maybe it wouldn’t be the best idea to risk having to get a wild spell under control at the same time. 

It was at that moment that she remembered her plans for Saturday night. 

“Hey, Janna – I’m having a sleepover Saturday. You wanna come?” she asked, trying her best to keep from seeming too eager, but still hoping the other girl would accept her invitation. 

To her delight, Janna almost immediately accepted the proposal; maybe not in the most enthusiastic way, but all that matter to Star was that her new friend was going to come to her sleepover, making it even better than it was already going to be. 

Unable to contain herself, Star let out a little squeal of joy and wrapped her arms around Janna in a hug. 

Janna seemed a little put-off by the sudden display of affection, but did return the gesture for a very brief moment before pulling away. 

“Hey, no offense, but can you not do that again?” Janna asked. “I’m really not that into hugs and that kind of stuff.” 

While she couldn’t fully understand why someone wouldn’t like to be hugged, Star also didn’t want to make her newest friend uncomfortable or unhappy, so she just nodded her agreement. Marisol squeaked in her hand, acting as a reminder to the princess, who jumped slightly, having almost forgotten she was holding the little creature. 

“Well,” she began, giving Marisol a gentle pet with her finger tips to make up for the jostling from a moment ago, “I guess I should get back to class and give Marisol back to Miss Skullnick. See you later, Janna?” 

She couldn’t help but sound hopeful; despite Janna having agreed to come to the sleepover, she still wasn’t sure if the other girl also considered them to be friends at this point; and she hoped that she did. She also could help but smile when Janna gave her a slight smirk in response, along with a promise to do just that. 

With that taken care of, the two went their separate ways – Star returning to Miss Skullnick’s math class with Marisol, while Janna went…wherever she was planning on going now that the little mini-adventure was completed. 

Apparently it hadn’t taken as long to get Marisol as the princess had thought, as class was still in session when she came knocking on the door to return the missing hamster to her owner. 

In stark contrast to how she had been when Star had gone to fetch her pet, Miss Skullnick was clearly and absolutely delighted to have Marisol handed back to her. And, if the contented-sounding squeaks and how she seemed to almost lean into the scratches that the troll-woman was giving her were any indication, it seemed like the feeling was mutual between pet and owner. It was actually really heartwarming to see, and Star couldn’t help but smile as she watched the reunion. 

“Get back in your seat – and no more funny stuff, Miss Butterfly,” Miss Skullnick said suddenly, turning her eyes towards Star and speaking in a stern voice. 

The princess opened her mouth, about to protest that what had happened before had been an accident and she hadn’t meant any harm, but decided against it; with everything that had happened, it probably wouldn’t be worth it to even try and argue with her teacher right now. 

So, instead, she just took her seat and just sat there for the rest of the lesson, alternating between actually paying attention as Miss Skullnick droned on about the subject and just allowing her mind to wander and drift away. This worked fairly well in regards to helping the last part of the class go by faster, even if it probably wasn’t going to do much good when it came to actually learning anything. 

Not that Star really cared all that much; especially after befriending Janna and catching Marisol with her, the last thing the Mewman wanted to do was have to deal with being bored once again, and if she had to sacrifice learning for a few moments to avoid that fate, it would be worth it. 

Soon enough, the bell rang, signaling the end of the period and seeming to snap everyone in the class out of the trance they had been in throughout most of the lecture. As they were heading to their next class, Star suddenly remembered inviting Janna to the sleepover…and, more importantly, the fact that Marco didn’t know about this change of plans. 

It occurred to her that maybe she should have made sure he was okay with the idea before asking, but it was too late for that now; and she couldn’t un-invite Janna now that she had accepted, could she? No, she really couldn’t, and that meant that the only thing she really could do was tell her best friend what had happened, and try to figure out a way to make him okay with it – if he wasn’t already. 

“Hey, Marco? You remember that sleepover I wanted to have Saturday night?” she began, trying her best to keep her voice as casual as possible, and looking at him out of the corner of her eye. 

“Yeah, I remember – still not exactly thrilled that you told Jackie I was going to be there, too,” he replied, sounding just a little bitter for a fraction of a second before he calmed down and sighed, “But, I guess I do need to actually hang out with her sometimes if I ever want to actually get anywhere…And I’m guessing that wasn’t what you were talking about anyway?” 

For the briefest of moments, Star felt her stomach twist a little when Marco started talking about Jackie, but she just ignored it. There were more important things to worry about right now than morning sickness. 

Instead, she decided it was best to just get to the point, and tell him about Janna joining the party. The words spilled out, and she waited for a couple seconds for him to respond. When he remained silent for a little longer, she decided to break the tension that was starting to form by asking, 

“So…I’m guessing you’re okay with this?” She smiled at her friend, hoping that would help with the mood; though she did still feel kind of bad for inviting Janna to the sleepover without asking him first. 

Finally, Marco sighed, and letting out that breath of air seemed to have a chain reaction, causing his entire body to relax. 

“Can you at least promise me that she won’t do anything too creepy while she’s there? And that nothing’s going to go missing?” he asked Star, his tone something between stern and maybe a little exasperated. 

Star was a little confused by what he was asking her to promise; why would those be the conditions he’d want her to agree to if Janna was going to join in the fun for their sleepover? But, she didn’t want him to be angry with her, so she didn’t bother asking any questions about it. 

Instead she just agreed, nodding enthusiastically as she said, “Yeah, of course I can do that. It’ll be a piece of cake, I swear.” 

It was clear from the look on his face that the boy was still a little uncertain, and he seemed a bit hesitant to give his response. 

Waiting with bated breath, Star hoped that he’d be okay with it – otherwise she’d have to find Janna and tell her that she couldn’t come to the sleepover after all. She would feel really awful about it, but she didn’t want to make Marco feel bad; she never wanted that. 

“I guess it might not be too bad, then…but I’m locking both doors to my room” Marco finally said, quickly adding the last part as the idea seemed to suddenly dawn on him. Not that Star was really paying enough attention to notice that; she was too busy barely containing her joy at what he’d said.

Letting out a noise of delight, the princess wrapped her arms around her friend, thanking him as she ended the brief embrace. 

He muttered something that she couldn’t quite hear, though she assumed it was the usual response to being thanked. 

With that taken care of, the two continued to their next class – English. Thankfully this was much more interesting than Miss Skullnick’s class (it was honestly kind of amazing how boring a class taught by a troll could be sometimes; even after Miss Skullnick had learned just how cool trolls could be), especially when they read really fun stories like they’d been doing for the past few days. 

However, while she usually did pay a decent amount of attention in this particular class, today Star’s mind was busy with something else, and kept wandering away from the present…because she was thinking about the future. Specifically, she was thinking of all the stuff that she and her friends could do at the sleepover on Saturday- and there was a lot that she could think of. 

Thankfully the teacher didn’t seem to notice she wasn’t really paying attention, and she didn’t get in trouble for her daydreaming.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

With how excited she was, time seemed to fly by for Star, and before she knew it, the night of her sleepover had finally arrived. Throughout most of the day, she had been eagerly awaiting the time that the event would properly begin, just barely resisting the urge to fire off some spells to help expel her excitement. 

She couldn’t help but be super excited about this sleepover. Not only was it the first sleepover she’d had since coming to Earth, but it would also be the first time she had a sleepover with more than just Pony Head spending the night. 

Unless you counted the times when her mother had the rulers of the Jaggy Mountains and the Spiderbite Kingdom send their own princesses to spend the night at Mewni castle with Star and Pony Head (apparently to help foster good relationships between the kingdoms or something like that…); but considering those were set up by her mom, Star didn’t think it really counted. 

So, this was the most excited she had been in some time. 

Marco’s parents also seemed to share her enthusiasm, even if they wouldn’t actually be around for the sleepover. At the request of both their houseguest and their son, they had promised to not disrupt the teenagers. 

Star and Marco had just figured they’d be spending most of the night in their own room, but instead they had revealed that they would be having something like a sleepover of their own, and would spend the night at a neighbor’s place; with the promise that they’d be returning fairly early the next morning, if the kids were at all concerned about being left alone for too long. Not that either Star or Marco had any issue with being left alone – or somewhat alone, considering they’d not only have each other as always, but also the princess’s guests – but the gesture was appreciated. 

As was the recipe for brownies that Angie had given Star to try before they left. The princess had skimmed through the recipe and it honestly sounded like it’d be delicious, but she also planned to add her own little touches; just to make it more of her own thing and surprise her friends with a special treat. 

Marco, on the other hand, seemed a little on edge about the whole thing, to Star’s slight dismay. 

It wasn’t enough to make her less excited about the sleepover, but it was enough to make her concerned about how her friend was going to handle the whole thing. And she knew exactly why he was so nervous: Jackie Lynn Thomas would be there, too. 

She did her best to assure him that he didn’t have to be nervous, but for the longest time, it seemed like her efforts were fruitless. However, he finally seemed to relax a little – much to her relief – right before the time when everyone was scheduled to arrive at the Diaz residence. 

Despite him apparently having gained some of his confidence back, he seemed to vanish when the doorbell rang, signaling that at least one of the princess’s guests had arrived. 

Practically dancing to the door, Star opened it and was somewhat surprised to see that Jackie and Janna had arrived together. However, she quickly pushed the feeling of surprise away as she gleefully welcomed the two and ushered them inside. 

“So, Star,” Janna began, walking into the kitchen and grabbing a drink from the fridge with even having to ask, “There gonna be any cool creepy things at this sleepover?” 

Star took a moment to consider the question, and figure out how she was going to respond. She was still thinking of an answer when Jackie piped in with a question of her own: “Where’s Marco?” 

Now that was a much easier question to respond to, mostly because Star actually knew what the answer was…or, could at least hazard a guess to the answer. 

“He’s still getting ready,” she told the skater girl with a smile, “Pretty sure he’ll come down and join in the fun pretty soon.” 

That answer seemed to satisfy, and the three girls just sat and talked for a bit, until the doorbell rang again. This time, when Star opened it, standing on the doorstep was StarFan13, wearing a smile that was so wide that Star almost worried that she was hurting herself, and shaking so much that it seemed implausible that she would ever be able to sleep that night. 

“Are you okay?” Star asked with concern as she noticed the rapid rising and falling of her friend’s chest. 

She was starting to wonder if maybe she should call Marco to ask for help, when StarFan13 let out an excited gasp of breath, her eyes almost seeming to glow as she stepped inside the house. She then latched onto Star’s arm, and the two of them joined Jackie and Janna in the living room. 

“Everyone here?” Jackie questioned, looking around at the selection of people lounging about the room; they were a fairly interesting group. 

Star shook her head. 

“Nope, but almost – we just have to wait for Pony Head. She’s one of my best friends, from Mewni,” Star explained, voice trembling a little from excitement. She honestly could not wait to introduce Pony Head to the friends she’d made from school; though she also hoped she’d get along better with them than she did with Marco at first…Star shook her head, not wanting to worry about that. 

Besides, if she knew Pony Head – and she definitely did know her oldest best friend – she was sure her fellow princess would be a little late, so she wouldn’t even have to worry about it until later, anyway. Instead, she just decided that they could start with the sleepover; Pony Head could join in as soon as she got there.

The whole thing was a lot of fun, and while they didn’t really do much that was all that different from the arranged sleepovers her mother set up for her, Star found that she enjoyed herself a lot more this time. 

The four girls just talked for a while, chatting about pretty much anything that came to their minds. Their topics changed often, and usually had almost no lead into each other, but the randomness of the conversation was part of the fun. Star even got snacks for all of them to share at one point, which just made the whole thing even better. 

It also reminded her of the recipe that Marco’s mom had given her, and she excused herself to go and make the brownies – with her own little touches, of course. 

Once the batter was mixed up, she poured it into the tray and tossed it in the oven, setting the timer before dancing back into the living room to join the other girls for more fun. They chatted for a bit longer, before Star remembered one of her favorite things to do at a sleepover.

“Who wants to do makeovers?” she asked in a sing-song voice. 

Janna made a noncommittal noise and shrugged in response; StarFan13 once again began to shake and breathe heavily; and Jackie just smiled and said, “Yeah, sounds pretty cool.” 

Two out of three was good enough for Star, so she squealed and led the other girls away to the downstairs bathroom. Even Janna followed, despite apparently not being all that interesting in the makeovers. 

Just as they were stepping into the bathroom, there was a soft humming noise that filled the air – a familiar sound to Star, but the other girls all looked a little confused, even Janna. 

Obviously not knowing what to expect, the three of them jump a little when a portal suddenly opened up in the bathroom, and Princess Pony Head flew out, announcing her arrival with, “Hey girlfriend! What’cha doing, thinking the party could start without me?” 

Despite her almost accusatory words, the Ponyhead princess flew over to Star and the two of them shared an embrace. It wasn’t until they had parted that it seemed like the newest arrival to the party realized that the two princesses weren’t the only ones standing in the room. 

“So, uh, who are you?” she asked the Earth girls, who all just looked at her with varying degrees of amazement on her face. Star could hear the possessive tone in her besty’s voice, and noticed how her eyes were narrowing as she looked at the humans; and decided to step in before things had a chance to get ugly. 

She quickly stepped in between Pony Head and the girls, speaking up before anyone else could say anything. 

“Hey, Pony – remember how I said I was gonna be inviting some friends from school to the sleepover tonight?” she asked her best friend, not waiting for a response before continuing. “Well, this is them. This is Jackie, StarFan13, and Janna. We have a lot of the same classes at school, and now we’re all sleepover-buddies. Right?” 

A tense moment passed, during which the princess of Mewni started to wonder if maybe this wasn’t the best idea. 

The silence was broken when Pony Head, still in a slightly suspicious voice, asked, “So, these Earth girls are just…friends right? Like, not best friends or anything like that? ‘Cause you know, it’s not like you need anymore besties on Earth, or at all, do you, B-Fly?” 

Not fully understanding what her friend was getting at, but also not wanting to risk anything happening to undo her plans for the sleepover, Star just nodded in agreement. That seemed to be enough to make Pony Head happy, as she immediately went from suspicious to cheerful, even jovially introducing herself to the other guests; all of whom seemed to have quickly gotten used to the situation, once things were a little calmer. 

With the introductions out of the way, the fun could start again. Pony Head demanded that she be first for a makeover, and was just as adamant about Star being the one to do the honors. 

Nobody argued, and Star quickly got to work, giving her oldest friend the most fun and fabulous makeover she could think of. 

“What’d’ya think?” she asked, grabbing her friend and turning her around so she could look in the mirror and see the end result of Star’s experimentation. 

Upon seeing her reflection, Pony Head let out a loud gasp, before then stage-whispering, “I love it.” 

Her eyes were literally sparkling as she admired herself in the mirror, complimenting Star’s work the entire time…while also praising herself. Once she seemed to have her fill, she turned her attention to her best friend, and demanded that her fellow princess get her makeover done next. 

Just as eager to get her makeover done, Star quickly walked over to the vanity, struggling to keep still as she awaited her turn. She expected that Pony Head would return the favor; so she was incredibly shocked when Janna stepped over to her and volunteered for the task. 

Clearly she wasn’t the only one who was surprised by this, as she could see identical expressions of surprise on the faces of both StarFan13 and Jackie; though neither girl actually voiced their amazement. Pony Head just looked irritated, but didn’t protest or try to take Janna’s place, so she was able to get to work putting the make-up on the Mewman princess. 

A few minutes later, the Earth girl was done, and she stepped aside to allow Star to see her new look. 

“It’s amazing,” she practically squeaked, gingerly touching one of the hearts on her cheeks, which now had a spray-painted rainbow and unicorn stick adorning it. “I didn’t know you were so good at makeovers, Janna.” 

Janna just shrugged at the compliment, avoiding eye contact with the rest of the girls. 

“It’s no big deal. My mom is one of the owners of this beauty salon, and she drags me to work with her sometimes – guess I just picked up a few things,” she said, her tone making it fairly clear that she didn’t really want to say anything more on the subject. 

Not that there was much time to ask questions; literally a second after she gave her explanation, StarFan13 rushed over to Janna and said in a wheezy voice, “Make me look exactly like Star. Exactly like Star.” 

Star couldn’t help but feel flattered by this, but a buzzing sound from her wand distracted her before she could say anything. She lifted her wand to look at the bell – which she had transformed into a timer after putting her brownies in the oven. 

“Sorry, girls, but we gotta take a break from makeovers for a bit,” she announced, using her magic to quickly clean up herself and Pony Head. “I’ve got something in the kitchen I know you guys are gonna love.” 

Not waiting for a response, she led them all into the kitchen, which was filled with the scent of her brownies – and if you asked Star, they smelled amazing. Bouncing with excitement over seeing her friends getting to try her brownies, she removed the baked goods, covered them with icing and magic sprinkles, and cut them up before inviting her guests to try some. Not to mention she was excited to try them for herself…

Suddenly feeling an all-too-familiar sensation forming in her stomach, the princess placed her treat back onto the plate. 

“I’ll…be right back. Tell me what you thought of the brownies, kay?” she said, silently praying that her attempt at being casual worked. 

The churning in her stomach seemed to intensify, and Star rushed to the bathroom. She barely had enough time to close the door before her body won the recently declared battle of wills, and her stomach was emptied into the bowl of the toilet. 

Once she was certain the whole thing was over, she got to her feet, shaking slightly as she made her way to the sink to wash the taste of bile out of her mouth, and clean herself off a little. She splashed some water onto her face, inspecting her reflection for a moment before deciding she was ready to rejoin the festivities; albeit with a slight bit of bitterness, as this new bout of nausea ensured that she wouldn’t be able to try any of her brownies while they were fresh – when they’d be the tastiest! 

She let out a sigh of disappointment before stepping out of the bathroom and making her way back to the kitchen. As she was walking, she heard an unfamiliar sound coming from the living room; the sound of someone playing some kind of piano. 

Confused and curious, she took a detour from her original destination, and decided to take a peak into the living room. 

And apparently the other girls had the same idea, as when she got there, she saw them all looking at the source of the sound: Marco, wearing what looked like a new outfit (and not something that would really work too well as pajamas, to Star’s slight irritation) and playing an electronic keyboard. As though he suddenly became aware of his audience, the boy paused in his playing and looked over his shoulder. 

“Wow, Marco, that was awesome,” Jackie complimented Marco with a smile that he almost immediately returned, along with an almost unnoticeable blush on his cheeks. 

“Thanks, Jackie,” Marco said. He got up from the couch and started to approach the group of girls, stumbling slightly as he seemed to forget about the little step that separated the living room from the other part of the house. 

For a moment, he seemed embarrassed at this mistake, but appeared to push those feelings away just as quickly, doing his best to act like the incident didn’t happen; even when Janna couldn’t help but make a comment about it. 

“Alright, alright, so now Earth Turd is joining the party and that’s great and all – but let’s get back to the important stuff already,” Pony Head said with a roll of her eyes.

The rest of the teens from Earth seemed confused at the nickname that the Ponyhead princess used for Marco, but he just waved their questioning looks off with an uncomfortable expression and a declaration of it being a “Long story”. 

Still, nobody seemed to want to argue with Pony Head, and before long, the teenagers found themselves sitting in a circle in Star’s room, with a strange blue box sitting in the center. 

“Okay, so this is one of the best games to play at a sleepover – Truth or Punishment,” Pony Head began, flying over to the box – which she had brought to the party. “It’s just gonna ask a bunch of questions, and you gotta answer them without lying or else you can get really messed up, and I mean like…you do not wanna see what this thing can do to you if you lie, ‘cause saying it will be ugly is being super nice, if you get what I’m talking about.” 

Upon seeing the nervous expressions on the faces of most of the kids from Earth – save Janna, who looked almost intrigued at what she was describing – Pony Head cut herself off, shutting her mouth just as she was about to continue with her ramble. 

After seeming to think about what to say next, she continued: “Oh, don’t worry about it – usually nothing too bad happens, and how can you not love a game that’s all about finding out people’s deepest, darkest secrets?” 

As she concluded this question, most of the others seemed to calm down and become at least a little more interested in playing the game…all except for Star and Marco, who both stiffened a little when Pony Head revealed the game was about revealing secrets. 

The two of them exchanged the briefest of looks, their eyes meeting for less than a second; but that was enough to communicate what they were both thinking. They both had a secret that neither wanted to even really think about, much less let everyone else in the room know; what happened between them when Star went through Mewberty. 

Well, Star knew that was what Marco was worried about revealing. She, on the other hand, had her own secret to worry about, the one that she didn’t even want him to know just yet; and one that she definitely didn’t want him to find out like this.

“Maybe we should play something else,” Marco said, obviously trying to sound casual, but unable to keep his true feelings from showing in his eyes. Doing her best to not draw too much suspicion, Star nodded in agreement. 

“Yeah,” she said, reaching for the cube in order to pick it up and hand it back to Pony Head. “I’m usually all for stuff like this, but even I have to admit that this whole thing seems a little…intense, even for me.” 

“Aw, c’mon, B-Fly, don’t be like that,” Pony Head complained, flying in between her friend and the box, resulting in Star’s hand bumping against her neck instead. “You know this thing’s probably just gonna ask easy questions like what’s your favorite color or have you killed a man. We probably don’t even gotta worry about anything that’s gonna make anything really gross happen. So how’s about you stop acting like Marco, and we get this thing started?” 

Star took a moment to consider what her friend had just said. Now that she was thinking about it, Pony Head did have a point. The box could literally ask any question in the universe; what were the chances of it asking a question that had anything to do with her baby? It had to be like a billion in one, and that was probably being super generous. 

The more she thought about it, the more her concerns melted away, and the more she had to acknowledge that the game did sound like a lot of fun. 

“Okay,” she finally said, sitting back again with a smile, “Let’s play.” 

Pony Head let out a whoop of excitement at this declaration. And, after taking a few moments to encourage Marco to play along (which he agreed to, albeit somewhat reluctantly), the game finally began. Each of the teens took the oath of truth, as the box demanded, and they waited to see what questions they would be asked. 

At first, it seemed like Pony Head was right, and the box would only give them questions that they wouldn’t have any reason to lie about…but they still did. 

The first question it asked was what everyone’s favorite color was, and that should have been easy enough to answer truthfully, but Janna, not wanting to conform to stereotypes, initially lied about her favorite color being pink. The punishment for that honestly wasn’t too bad; just some pretty intense tickling. Still they were all relieved when Janna finally confessed and they could move onto the next question. 

Which also didn’t end up going as well as Star would have suspected, for a reason she hadn’t even considered. To her immense surprise, the box asked them about her brownies; and when everyone (sans her and Marco, who didn’t eat any) declared that they loved them, the box reacted by starting to transform them all into hideous monsters – even more disgusting that the most gruesome beasts Star had ever seen. 

It only turned them back when the girls admitted that they found Star’s recipe disgusting, and had thrown them out after one bite each. 

Star couldn’t deny that she was a little hurt by this, though at the moment, she was more concerned with frantically giving herself a quick self-examination after her body was back to normal. 

“Okay…I think maybe it’s time to stop playing now,” she said once she was sure everything was alright. 

Everyone else – who all seemed just as shaken as Star was – began to voice their agreement, with even Pony Head declaring that she wanted to go to the Bounce Lounge instead. With that agreed on, everyone got up and started to head to the door – only for the box to suddenly appear in their path. 

“The game isn’t over yet” it declared, sounding almost angry at the teens for their decision to quit before the game was done. “You all took an oath – three truths and you may go. No more and no less.” 

To the shock of the teenagers, a small laser blasted out of the cube and at the door, which suddenly vanished; they were stuck until they met the demands of the game. No longer having any other choice, they returned to where they were seated, each clearly nervous about what the final question could be, but also obviously trying to hide it. 

Finally, Jackie spoke up, “Okay, guys…let’s get this over with.” That seemed to be enough for the box, which began to form the third and final question for the group. 

The six players watched with bated breath as they waited for the question, none being able to take their eyes away from the spinning screen. “What secret are you most scared to tell everyone?” 

Upon hearing the question, everyone flinched; even Janna and Pony Head. 

“Uh….can we just not answer this one?” Marco asked, looking a bit like he was going to be sick as he glanced between Star and Jackie before staring at the cube in the center of the circle once more. 

“Of course you can – but know that only liars would have something to hide” the box declared, voice going scarily deep as the room suddenly went dark and the cube itself went dark red; a clear indication that it was about to deliver another punishment to the group. 

Desperate to avoid this fate, everyone frantically began to protest, saying they’d answer the question. 

“Good…good” the box said, changing back to blue as it began to float once again. It suddenly darted over to Jackie, getting right in her face as it asked, “What is your secret?” 

The skater girl took a deep breath, preparing herself for whatever would happen when she next spoke.

“Okay,” she began, letting out the breath, “I’m actually not as chill as everyone thinks I am. Actually, I’m really stressed a lot of the time, and trying to act cool just makes it worse. But I gotta keep it up, cause, honestly, I’m not sure who I am otherwise.” 

A second passed in silence, with the others looking at Jackie sympathetically, before the cube turned away from her and moved onto the next person: Janna. She avoided looked at the box floating in front of her, though her expression was more angry than nervous. She grumbled out her response, too low for anyone to hear what she was saying. 

It was only when the cube demanded that she say it more clearly that she let out a groan and raised her voice, repeating her response: “My mom didn’t drag me to her salon – I asked her to take me. I did kind of want to know how to do some of that make-up stuff.” 

She glared at the box and asked, “Happy now?” 

“Yes” the box said simply, clearly not caring about the fact that the girl was glaring daggers at it. The next victim to be questioned was Pony Head, who seemed just as unhappy about this as Janna. 

However, unlike the Earthling, the Ponyhead princess didn’t hesitate to answer, and answered clearly. 

“Sometimes…I worry that I’m not actually as fabulous as I think I am, or that there’s even someone out there better than me. Sometimes...I even wonder if maybe Khrysthalle is more beautiful than I am” she admitted, making a face that looked like she was struggling not to vomit at the last point. “There, I said it.” 

StarFan13 was next, and she actually burst into tears the moment the box turned on her. Her reaction made everyone jump slightly; even the box moved back a little when she started to cry. 

Despite her tears (which were causing the painted hearts on her cheeks to smudge slightly as they ran down her face), she managed to choke out, “One time last month, I spent a whole day caring more about the new virtual pet my Aunty Millicent gave me than about Star! I’m so sorry, Star! I love you so much, and I promise I never meant it!” 

Still sobbing, she launched herself at Star, wrapping her arms around the princess, who returned the gestured and began to gently pat her back in order to comfort her friend. StarFan13 calmed down as Star reassured her that it was okay, and she went back to sit down, still snuffling slightly as she crawled away. 

Now the only ones left to answer the question were Star and Marco, who looked at each other once again, each clearly wanting nothing more than to be able to avoid this…but also knowing that wasn’t possible. 

The box flew in front of Star, demanding to know her deepest secret. Star hemmed and hawed for a bit, desperately trying to figure out a way around this. 

She knew that she needed to tell the truth, or something horrible could happen. But, she didn’t want Marco to find out about the baby like this; she wasn’t even sure if she was ready to tell him at all. Not to mention the fact that she was terrified that Pony Head would tell her secret to someone, and word would eventually reach her mother; she loved her best friend, but she also knew her fellow princess could not keep a secret to save her life, and lived to spread juicy gossip. 

Finally, she decided to take a chance…and she lied. 

“I have a huge crush on Oskar Greason, even if I know it’ll probably never ever work out,” she said, forcing herself to show no signs of her dishonesty on her face. Maybe if she convinced herself that what she was saying was true, it would be enough to trick the game into believing her. It was either hold onto that hope or tell the truth and risk whatever that consequences of that would be. 

The choice was very easy to make. 

The cube stayed floating in front of her for several seconds; and for a moment, Star wondered if it was going to expose her lie right then and there. To her relief, after a moment had passed, it finally moved away and set its sights on Marco. 

The poor boy looked as nervous as Star had felt when it was his turn, unable to meet the gaze of the cube’s single diamond-shaped eye as it asked him the same question as it had asked each of the girls: “What is your secret?” 

As everyone waited for Marco to give his answer, Star noticed that both Pony Head and Janna were looking at her with somewhat suspicious expressions; she just did her best to ignore them, even if she was secretly wondering why they were looking at her like that…

Instead, she watched as her best friend lowered his head, looking to the floor as he said, “I…I have a crush on Jackie Lynn Thomas. Or, I think I do, but sometimes…Sometimes I wonder if I really have a crush on her, or if I’m just thinking of this person I’ve put on a pedestal, because I don’t really know her…but I really want to.” 

After he said this, Star found her eyes drifting over to where Jackie was sitting. She was looking over at Marco with a face that seemed somewhat surprised, and also a little touched by what he’d just said. 

But, now they’d all give their answers, so it was just a matter of seeing whether the box believed what it’d been told. 

The seconds ticked by like hours as they all waited in silence to see if the game was going to finally end and they could relax for the first time since they started playing.  
Just when they all seemed to relax – figuring the cube had deemed all their statements to be true – the room went pitch black, before suddenly being lit up by a red light coming from the cube as it floated high above their heads. 

“LIES!” The voice of the cube was louder than it’d ever been before this point as it announced the verdict. All of a sudden, the cube transformed into what looked like a diamond with some horrible three-eyed beast squashed inside of it, and the room itself began to transform as well. 

The walls became covered with designs similar to those that adored the sides of the cube, including the same deep red coloring…and most importantly, pillars began to grow from every flat surface of the room – the floor, the ceiling, the walls. 

The teens all frantically moved out of the way to avoid being caught between any of these rapidly forming pillars and getting crushed. 

“Why are you doing this?” Star asked as she just barely managed to jump off of a pillar that had started to form underneath her feet before it could squish her underneath another that had shot out from a nearby wall. 

In truth, she really just hoped that she could distract the cube long enough to grab her wand and hopefully get it to stop before someone got hurt…or worse. With each moment that passed, there was less and less room to move around; by this point, the teenagers were mostly confined to a small section of the room that had yet to be filled up by pillars…and who knew how long that space would remain? 

“LIES DO NOTHING BUT PLANT THE SEEDS OF DISTRUST AND CORRUPTION. THEY GROW LIKE WEEDS AND CHOKE OUT ANY SHRED OF DECENCY IN THE WORLD. IT’S MY DUTY TO ERRADICATE THESE LIES AT THE SOURCE, AND DESTROY THEM BEFORE THIS CAN HAPPEN!” the cube shouted, obviously in response to Star’s question. 

The princess continued to desperately search for her wand – sure, she could try dipping down again, but not only was she not sure if she could do it at will, but she didn’t want to take any chances after what happened the last time. 

She was still trying to spot the device when her attention was caught by Pony Head screaming her pet name for the Mewnian girl. 

“B-Fly!” Pony Head screamed from where she was currently stuck in the bottom of a horizontal pillar by the end of her horn. “Just spit it out so we can get out of here! Trust me – nobody is gonna care about you –“ 

She was cut off in her statement when the box suddenly whipped around to face her, roaring, “STAR ISN’T THE ONLY ONE WHO LIED!” 

Star was pretty sure that she knew that the cube was referring to Marco – he was the only one who she was fairly certain had also lied about his most worrying secret – and she also knew she didn’t want him to be forced to admit what he was really afraid for everyone else to know. Not only had that whole situation made things different between them (and not in a good way) for weeks, but there was also the issue of Jackie. 

Marco definitely hadn’t been lying when he mentioned his crush on Jackie, and Star knew that. She also knew that there was no way of knowing how the skater girl would react if Marco was forced to tell everyone what had happened between him and Star all those months ago; with one possibility being that it would result in her being unwilling to give him a chance. 

That was something Star couldn’t, and wouldn’t, allow to happen. 

Having realized that the wand was no longer within her reach, she desperately tried another tactic to placate the box before things got too far…without having to spill her own secrets to everyone, of course. 

“But it’s not really lying,” she said, surprising even herself with how calm she sounded as she made the statement.

“What?” the cube demanded, turning its attention back to Star and speaking without shouting for the first time since it had transformed. 

Realizing that she might have something with work with here, Star decided to roll with it. 

“Yeah,” she said. “I mean, you asked us to tell you the secrets that we were most afraid to let everyone know…but that kind of stuff changes all the time. Even from moment to moment, people’s feelings change all the time…and they might not even realize it.” 

As she spoke, she found her gaze drifting over to where Marco was pinned underneath the rest of the girls (sans the still trapped Pony Head). She felt a strange, indescribable feeling in her chest as their eyes met, but chose to ignore it and instead focus on getting the cube to stop the game and let them go. 

To her relief, it seemed like what she had said was already having an effect; not only did the cube not protest to what she had said, but the pillars had stopped forming. 

“You can’t say someone is a liar just because they change their mind about something,” she declared, sounding a lot more sure of herself than she really felt. 

That seemed to be enough to break the cube and it began to go nuts, flashing rapidly between a glow that was either green, red, or blue and constantly changing between the current diamond-like shape and the original cube design. 

Finally, after several seconds, it returned to being a cube once more – though now without any color at all, and obvious signs of damage all over. 

As the cube fell to the ground, the pillars vanished, leaving the six teens once again sitting in Star’s bedroom. Everyone who had been trapped got up, all obviously shaken from the ordeal, though some were doing a much better job of hiding it than others. 

“Let’s never use that thing again,” Marco said, giving a hateful look at the now inert cube. There were absolutely no protests, and Star – having now located her wand once more – used a spell to transport the thing to the can that sat on the curb, awaiting the garbage truck. 

She was about to suggest something else to take their minds off of what had just happened, when the light streaming into the room revealed that the morning had already come, and with it, the end of Star’s sleepover. 

Pony Head simply pulled out her scissors and cut open a portal, barely taking a moment to tell everyone goodbye before flying through; though she did take a moment to make a comment to Marco about him “playing the field”, to the boy’s obvious confusion. 

Jackie, Janna, and StarFan13 all gathered up their things and walked downstairs with Star and Marco. The two brunettes simply said their goodbyes and stepped out the door, but Jackie stayed a moment longer. 

“Thanks for the invite, Star,” she said, looking at the girl with a smile. “That was one crazy night.” 

Star shrugged a little and smiled, happy that things had apparently turned out well. She felt the smile fade slightly when Jackie turned her attention to Marco and said that she’d seen him in school the next day, her voice warmer than any of the other times she’d spoken to him. Based on the look on his face, this was not lost on Marco. 

Star felt the odd feeling coming back as she looked between her best friend and Jackie, who was currently skateboarding away. 

“So…how about we get our Sunday morning breakfast burritos?” she suggested, nudging Marco gently with her elbow. To her dismay, he just shook his head, still with the same dreamy expression on his face from when Jackie had last spoken to him. 

“Not right now, Star – I’m gonna go get some sleep,” he said, walking away in the wrong direction before laughing slightly to himself and turning back to go the right way. 

Feeling…strange at being turned down, Star called to her friend to try and get his attention, and when he didn’t respond, she called louder, using his full name this time. 

That seemed to fully snap Marco back to reality, as he jumped slightly before turning to face her, asking, “Yeah, Star?” 

All of a sudden, Star found herself unable to say what had originally been on her mind, instead deciding to ask something different. “I’m gonna make a burrito for myself, anyway. You want me to make one for you? I can put it in the fridge if you’re not hungry right now,” she said, internally wondering why she hadn’t been able to say what was on her mind just moments ago. 

Marco smiled, told her that sounded like a great idea, and then continued on his way to his room to get some sleep, just as he’d said he would. 

Meanwhile, Star went to work making a couple breakfast burritos (one of the few foods that Marco had taught her how to make that she could actually always remember and make well), wrapping one up in foil and placing it in the refrigerator for Marco to eat when he got up. 

She then grabbed her own burrito and went up the stairs to her own bedroom, planning on taking a nap of her own when she was done eating. 

As she munched on her breakfast, she couldn’t help but think about what had happened between Jackie and Marco a few moments ago; and as she thought, she felt an odd twinge in her chest as well as her stomach. 

She figured that the feeling in her belly was just the result of either her being hungry, or the baby reacting to her latest meal…but the feeling in her chest wasn’t something she could really explain. 

Nor was the thought that came to her, almost without her even noticing it had formed in her mind: “Maybe inviting Jackie wasn’t the best idea…” 

Star stunned even herself as the words came tumbling out of her mouth, her voice barely loud enough to even be considered a whisper. She couldn’t imagine why she would say something like that – Jackie was a super nice person (from the little she and Star had really interacted with each other) and Marco really liked her; why wouldn’t it have been a great idea to invite her to the sleepover? 

“I must be really tired,” Star reasoned aloud to herself. 

That was the only way she could explain why she had just said that. So, she quickly finished her burrito – given her condition, she wasn’t going to leave a meal unfinished, especially when it was one she enjoyed – and laid down, closing her eyes and trying not to think about anything in an attempt to fall asleep faster. 

Maybe it was because of how draining the recent few hours had been, but she found herself drifting to sleep within moments, only moving once to change her position to something a little more comfortable, and only waking up a few hours later, when Marco’s parents knocked on her closed door to announce they had come home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this chapter ended up a lot longer than I was initially planning. 
> 
> What's actually kind of funny was that I originally wasn't planning to do anything regarding "Girls' Day Out", until I realized that I needed a way to explain why Janna would have been invited to Star's sleepover. So, I decided to do my own little version of that episode's events, to show the start of the friendship between those two.
> 
> I figured that, since in this version of events Star didn't free Marisol on purpose, Miss Skullnick wouldn't just throw her in detention and would be slightly more willing to forgive what she did...so long as she got the hamster back safe and sound. And tell me you couldn't see Janna as being someone who'd just wander around the hallways at school when she was bored in class. 
> 
> Janna and Jackie arriving together is supposed to be a reference to the semi-popular theory I'd seen a while back, that I honestly really loved, that Jackie and Janna were actually friends early in the series - likely spawned from the fact that Jackie was apparently giving Janna a ride on her skateboard when Tom came to the school in "Blood Moon Ball." I just love the idea of those two actually being good friends and deciding to show up at Star's sleepover together.
> 
> It was a lot of fun coming up with the alternative secrets for Pony Head, Janna, Jackie, and StarFan13. I have to thank my friend, user Malthus1 on the SVTFOE subreddit for coming up with the confessions for Pony Head and Jackie (though I do suspect that Jackie's was at least partially inspired by Wendy's confession in "Society of the Blind Eye", when everyone believes their memories are about to be erased.)
> 
> Next chapter is likely going to be another big one, both in terms of length and what happens - after all, it's going to cover "Into the Wand" (which is going to be a pretty intense experience for Star), "Naysaya", and most importantly, "Bon Bon the Birthday Clown." That last one is going to be a pretty major event, not only because of the stuff that happens in the episode, but let's just say that Star's baby hits a very important developmental milestone around that time.


	10. Chapter 10

For the most part, Star didn’t pay too much attention when her wand acted strangely. After all, that was actually pretty normal when it came to her situation – being pregnant just made magic go a little crazy for the Royal Butterflies. 

She only really became concerned about it when it could do something like get her in trouble, or worse, reveal her secret. Otherwise, by this time she had learned to just accept that sometimes wand would just fire off a random spell when she was holding it, and the spells she cast for herself wouldn’t always work out the way she planned. 

But, as she looked at the shriveled, gasping blob that laid in front of her, she was starting to think that there might actually be something wrong with her wand. And if there was, she knew that she needed to fix it before it got worse; not to mention before her mother could find out about it. 

Queen Moon had been willing to forgive Star the first time she’d broken the wand, which had been enough of a shock for the princess. She had a feeling her mother wouldn’t be as kind if she’d broken the thing again, and would probably at least make her come back to Mewni for a while, as a punishment. Which would be bad enough under normal circumstances – having to leave behind the friends she’d made while on Earth – but considering her situation, she wanted to avoid constantly being around her mother as much as possible.

It wasn’t that she didn’t love her mother, but she knew that if anyone might be able to figure out her secret, it was her – after all, she had gone through the same thing, and had no doubt paid more attention to her relatives when they were expecting than Star ever had. 

Star was sure that if she was living back on Mewni again, her mother would find out about the baby soon enough and then…

Star swallowed to clear away the lump in her throat, swearing she could literally feel the thing dropping into her stomach. 

“Okay,” she said softly to herself, doing her best to sound confident in her own words. “Freaking out is not going to help anything. Besides, it’s not like I’ve got anything to worry about, right?” 

A quick glance at the thing on her floor made her realize immediately what the answer to her question was, and it was not the answer she was hoping for – not by a long shot. 

“I’m gonna need some help” Star muttered to herself as she looked at her wand, turning it over in her hands like she thought it would help her figure out what to do about the current predicament. 

She let out a sigh and walked over to her bed, getting down on the floor and dragging her Book of Spells out from underneath the bed. 

Star always hated getting this book out; both because it was kind of a pain to take it out, with how heavy it was, and just because asking Glossaryck for help was never exactly fun. That was why she tried to avoid doing so unless she really thought it was necessary. And, unfortunately, she got the feeling that she did need her mentor’s help with this particular problem. 

She tried to just open the book, but found that, for some reason, the cover refused to budge, no matter how much she tried pulling on it. 

After trying to open the book herself for a few moments, she finally just gave up and decided to try something else. She knocked on the cover of the book – Glossaryck did live in there, so she figured that treating the cover like a door did make sense. 

“Who is it?” Glossaryck’s voice came from inside the book, sounding slightly muffled, at the same time the large crystal on the cover seemed to be replaced by a crystalline version of the blue wizard’s eye. 

“It’s me, Star” she replied, not wanting to beat around the bush too much. “I need your help with something. My spells are acting really weird, and –“ 

She was cut off by the sound of Glossaryck clearing his throat. Star stopped talking and waited as her mentor undid a hidden chain that was apparently keeping the book closed, and flipped it open to reveal himself. 

He greeted her with a deep bow – something he did pretty much whenever he felt like it, Star had no idea what determined how he’d act on the rare occasions she really asked to talk with him – and then looked up with a completely neutral face as he asked, “Haven’t your spells been acting a little unusually ever since you had that ‘Freeze Day’ with Marco? Why are you suddenly so worried about it now?” 

“How did you know about…” Star began, sounding very confused before she remembered the reason why she needed to talk to him in the first place. “Never mind, that’s not important. And, yeah, but I don’t think this is the same kind of weird.” 

In order to help illustrate her point, she gestured at the result of her last spell and told her mentor to take a look. 

At first, the little blue wizard seemed rather uninterested…until he saw what the princess was gesturing towards. 

There, gasping for breath on the floor, was what he assumed was supposed to be a small narwhal; but it was deformed, looking more like a blob of clay that someone had tried to shape before giving up halfway through. The poor pathetic creature looked at Glossaryck with one bulging eye as it took a gasping breath, which quickly got cut off as it began to cough up what looked like a thick slime. 

The sight was enough to make Glossaryck go a little green, and he turned to look at Star, saying, “I can see why you’re worried about that. But, I can assure you that a one time event like this is nothing to worry about.” 

Star scowled slightly; normally she would have been happy with the assurance and just left it at that. This time, however, she wasn’t going to be satisfied with him just telling her everything was fine and going back to the inside of the spell book to do whatever it was he did in there. She needed to get this thing fixed, and soon. 

“But it’s not just a one time thing,” she said, unable to keep herself from sounding frustrated. “It keeps happening – Watch.” 

With that, she kept firing off her Narwhal Blast spell, with each blast resulting deformed blobs that, at best, vaguely resembled the creature the spell was supposed to create. The more times she performed the spell, the more Glossaryck’s face took on a greenish tint, going from the usual blue hue to an almost turquoise color by the end. Finally, he seemed to have enough, and floated over to Star, grabbing onto the hand that was holding the wand to signal for her to stop. 

“Alright, I’ve seen enough,” he said as he hovered in front of Star. “There’s definitely something seriously wrong with your wand.” 

The princess frowned and looked at the device in her hands, as though trying to figure out what was wrong with it, and, more importantly, how she was supposed to fix it.

“Well, do you know how I’m supposed to fix it?” she asked, after coming to the conclusion that she wasn’t going to be able to find out the solution on her own. Her eyes lit up when her mentor revealed that he did know how to fix the wand…only to go dark again when he said they wouldn’t be able to do it. 

When the princess demanded to know why, he floated over and said, “Because in order to fix your wand, you have to go _inside_ of your wand. And, by the order of Moon the Undaunted, reigning Queen of Mewni, you are a bit below the minimum height requirements for this ride.” 

As he spoke the last part of the line, he floated a bit higher, holding out his hand so that his palm was a few inches above the top of her head. 

Star glanced up at his hand, and then glared down at the ground, grumbling under her breath about her mother. Well, if her mom thought she was just going to sit back and let her wand get worse, she had another thing coming. 

“Well, I, Star the Underestimated, future Queen of Mewni, demand that you ignore my mom’s orders and put me in my wand,” she demanded in the sternest voice she could muster. She wanted to make it clear to Glossaryck that she was not going to budge on this. If he was going to argue against it, she was prepared to do whatever it took to get him to do as she wanted. 

“Okay,” he said, shrugging his shoulders as he lowered himself so that he was once again face-to-face with his charge. 

It took a moment for Star to fully realize what he had just said; and then another second for her to reply back. 

“Wait…really?” she asked, raising an eyebrow in response. She was expecting at least a bit of an argument, so him just agreeing to her demands was rather shocking. Not that she was going to complain about this stroke of luck, but still…

Glossaryck, meanwhile, didn’t seem at all phased by Star’s confusion and just nodded. He began to speak as he floated towards the Book, which still lay open on the floor of Star’s bedroom. 

“Sure,” he said, sitting down on the pages and patting next to him to signal for the princess to sit beside him. “As long as you’re sure you’re ready for it, why shouldn’t I let you?” 

He narrowed his eyes slightly and asked, “You are ready to go inside your wand, aren’t you?” 

Star hesitated for a second; was she ready, really? She had no idea what this was really going to involve, and now that she wasn’t dealing with the frustration of her mother setting limits on her, that knowledge began to weigh heavy on her mind. 

Sure, going inside of her wand did sound like it’d be a pretty cool little adventure, but she also had to admit that it sounded just a bit…intimidating, especially with how much Glossaryck seemed to be stressing that she needed to be ready for it… 

Just then, she felt a little twinge in her stomach – nothing major, but it was enough to break her out of her thoughts. 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m ready,” she said, trying her best to sound confident as she sat down beside the little blue man. 

Even if she was still a little nervous deep down, she had to fix her wand. She still didn’t know too much about how her pregnancy was supposed to work (even when she had managed to sneak some glances at stuff in her book, not only did almost none of her grandmas write about their pregnancies at all, but even those who did didn’t really write anything that was super helpful, in her opinion), she did know that her baby was in the place where Magic came from; and she was pretty sure the Wand had something to do with that place, too, even if she wasn’t exactly sure what. 

If there was any chance that whatever was wrong with her wand could do something to her baby, she definitely wanted to get it fixed as soon as possible, no matter what that took. 

“How’s this work?” she asked, suddenly being hit by the realization that she had no idea what she was about to do. Unlike his usual behavior of refusing to actually do anything helpful, this time Glossaryck seemed perfectly happy to actually explain things to the Mewnian princess.

“It’s really simple, actually – I just put us inside of your wand,” he began. Star was about to comment, but stopped when she saw that Glossaryck wasn’t done speaking. “But, before we go inside, there is something very important you have to remember.” 

He motioned for her to lift up her wand – which she did without question, though she did kind of wonder what he was getting at – before placing one hand on the bell of the wand and the other on Star’s forehead. Star felt an odd tingling sensation in her face as Glossaryck continued to speak. 

“Your wand is an extension of your memories. In order to fix the problem, you will have to go through these memories and find the thing that does not belong,” he explained, moving so that he was once again hovering in front of her face. 

He asked her if she was ready, and without hesitation, she nodded.

“Okay – we’re inside your wand,” Glossaryck said after about a half-second of silence. 

Star blinked and looked around; they hadn’t moved from her bedroom. She told Glossaryck this much and he shook his head, explaining that they were no longer in her room, but just in the memory of her room that resided inside of her wand. 

“What are you talking abou-“ Star began to ask, before she realized that the hand that she’d been holding her wand in only seconds early was suddenly empty. Unable to speak for a moment, she pointed at her now empty palm with an amazed expression, barely paying attention to what Glossaryck was saying – something about his voice and – 

“Have you seen my hoodie?” 

At the sound of Marco’s voice, Star turned to find her best friend – sans his red hoodie – standing in the doorway. Normally she’d be happy to help him look for it, but right now, she kind of had more important things to do. 

“Actually, I’m kind of in the middle of something with Glossaryck,” she told him. “You think we could maybe look later or –“

She was cut off by the little blue wizard man repeating her name over and over, obviously trying to get her attention. 

The Mewman girl turned her head, looking at her mentor with a confused expression, silently asking what he wanted. 

“Star, that isn’t Marco – it’s just your memory of him. Now that we’re in the wand, it is very important that you only pay attention to the sound of my voice. Otherwise –“

Once again, Star heard Marco’s voice coming from her doorway, still asking if she’d seen his hoodie. Starting to get frustrated, she turned to glare at her friend, exclaiming, “Marco – I just told you, I’m doing something with Glossa-where’d he’d go?” 

Her voice went from irritated to confused as she glanced back at where Glossaryck had been, only to discover that the little magical man had suddenly vanished. Her confusion only grew as her room seemed to melt away, and she found herself standing in the middle of an unfamiliar road. 

Once she got over the initial shock of the sudden change, she decided she may as well try to figure out how to fix things herself. 

After all, she was already here, and from Glossaryck had said, it didn’t sound like it was going to be all that hard. She just had to find the thing that didn’t belong in her memories…whatever that was supposed to be.

The biggest question going through her mind at the moment was where she was supposed to be looking for the thing. She looked around as she started to walk, muttering to herself as she tried to see if she spotted anything that looked out of place. In fact, she was so focused on searching that she failed to really pay attention to where she was walking, until she was forced to come to a stop, thanks to her slamming into a door. 

Rubbing her now sore head, Star looked up to see what she had bumped into, and was annoyed to find it was the school building. 

“Glossaryck, I am not going to school…Or memory school…or…You know what, I’m just not going school at all,” she called out, turning on her heel and heading in the opposite direction; she figured wherever Glossaryck had disappeared to, he could probably hear her. 

However, despite her statement, she soon found herself once again standing in front of the door to Echo Creek Academy. 

“Oh, I get what this is,” she said, her voice almost flat out of a lack of amusement at the current situation. “This is like one of those dreams where there’s just…school everywhere.” 

As though trying to test her theory, she turned around in every direction, looking as far into the distance as she could; and no matter where she looked, she saw the school staring back at her. Star sighed, realizing that she wasn’t going to be given an option here. 

“Guess I’m going to school,” she said, stepping forward and walking into the building in front of her. 

As she walked down the hall, she thought she saw something at the other end, but it passed so quickly that she wasn’t even completely sure she even saw it in the first place. 

There was a soft creaking noise to her left, and she turned to see that one of the lockers lining the wall had been opened slightly. Upon walking closer, the princess recognized the locker as hers – and saw that there was something inside. 

“What the…Did I leave something in there?” Star muttered to herself as she opened the door a little more to see what the object was. 

There, tied to the small hook on the back part of the locker, was a small light blue blanket, decorated with a few cute pictures of narwhals. Star couldn’t help but let out a delighted noise as she reached for the blanket – which was incredibly soft in her hands – and took it out of the locker for a closer look. 

“So cute,” she said with a smile as she got a better look at the blanket, which she now realized was almost definitely a baby blanket, all things considered. “I wish I had one of these when I was little...” 

It was upon saying those words that the princess was hit by the realization that this blanket was not something she could recognize; she’d had plenty of blankets when she was little, but never one that had this design on it. 

Glossaryck had said to find the thing that didn’t belong in her memories, didn’t he? And if she didn’t remember a blanket like this, then that must mean…

”What do I do now?” Star said to herself, her voice barely more than a whisper as she turned the blanket over in her hands. She could only think of one reason why a baby blanket, of all things, would be the thing that didn’t belong – the thing that was messing up her wand – and she didn’t even want to begin to think about what that meant. 

Still, she knew she had to at least get the object out of the wand before things got too bad, so she called out to Glossaryck, letting him know she’d found the thing that did not belong. 

After a few seconds of nothing happening, Star frowned and asked the empty hallway, “What’s taking so long?” 

All of a sudden, a rather delicious scent filled the air, causing Star’s mouth to water slightly as she caught a whiff. 

She followed the smell to a room where a conveyor belt seemed to be just moving burgers along, not appearing to actually be going anywhere. The closer she got to the conveyor belt with the burgers, she more enticing they seemed to become. 

Despite the fact that she had eaten not too long before, her stomach began to growl softly once she was close enough that she could just reach out and grab one of the burgers from the belt. She tried to ignore the growling – she had to find out how to get out of here, after all – but found it just got louder, more insistent. 

“Okay, okay, I’ll get you one,” Star said, placing a hand on her stomach as she stepped towards the conveyer belt, reaching out and grabbing one of the burgers the instant one was within her grasp. She took a bite, letting out a little moan of delight at the taste; it was even better than she had been imagining. 

“So good…” she muttered to herself, about to take another bite. 

However, before she could do that, she heard a noise that was both strange, yet somehow familiar – an odd bleating sound. 

Star turned her head towards the direction of the sound and jumped slightly when she saw the source: a dark gray pig-goat that seemed to have literally appeared out of nowhere – at least, Star couldn’t see where it’d come from. 

Her eyes widened as she saw not only that the pig-goat was sitting on the conveyer belt, but that the end of the line appeared to be an incinerator. She may not have known where the little guy came from or what he was doing in her memory-school, but she definitely knew she didn’t want the creature to be cooked alive; which was going to be his fate if he stayed on the belt for much longer. 

Running as quickly as she could, she jumped onto the belt, catching up to the animal just as it was about to go into the fire. With a bit of effort – the little guy wasn’t quite so little when she actually had to try and move him – she managed to pull him out of the mouth of the incinerator, causing the two of them to tumble to the ground. 

It was as they were sitting on the ground that Star noticed that the pig-goat had a collar with a diamond-shaped tag on its neck. Curious, she got a little closer, to see if she could figure out what the animal’s name was. 

“Lil Chauncey?” she read aloud, shocked as the memory came flooding back to her. “You’re Mom’s old pig-goat, aren’t you?”

Lil Chauncey bleated, which the princess took as a confirmation to her question. 

Upon learning this, Star smiled and pulled the animal close to her. She did vaguely remember Lil Chauncey from when she was really little – though it’d be more accurate to say that she remembered being told about him, as her mother’s faithful pet had died not too long before her daughter was born. 

“I’m pretty sure you died on the battle field, Mister,” she said playfully, poking the pig-goat’s cheek and getting a bleat in response. 

The animal squirmed out of her arms a moment later, running underneath the nearby conveyer and starting to chew on something. Curious, Star walked closer to see what her mother’s old pet had found. 

“Hey!” she exclaimed when she saw what he had in his mouth. She grabbed for the object, demanding, “Let go of that!” 

After a brief tug-of-war with Lil Chauncey, Star finally managed to get him to stop chewing on the thing and take it away from him. 

“This is not food,” she scolded, holding what she’d just taken up so it was out of his reach. “It’s…” At that moment, she realized that she had been so busy trying to take the object away from Lil Chauncey that she hadn’t actually seen what it was. 

“A stuffed animal?” she questioned, looking at the thing in her hand with a raised eyebrow. Indeed, it appeared that what Lil Chauncey had decided to try and munch on was a small plush butterfly, pale blue with pink and yellow wings and a cute little smile on its face. 

More confused now than ever, Star brought the plush closer to her, wondering if getting a better look might help clarify things, at least a little. As she moved her hand, she noticed two things: that the wings of the toy flapped up and down as her hand moved (despite the fact that she never touched them), and a soft jingling noise, so soft she almost wondered if she’d just imagined it; not helped by the fact that Lil Chauncey was starting to eat something he’d found on the floor, and he was definitely not a quiet eater. 

She shushed the animal, then waited until he stopped scarfing down his snack before trying to see if she could hear where the jingling had come from. 

Sure enough, in the quiet she was able to quickly identify the source – “Oh, it’s a rattle.” 

Star felt her heart start to beat a little faster as she once again looked at the toy in her hand; a sort of combination of a stuffed animal and a rattle…and completely unfamiliar to her, meaning it didn’t belong in her memories. 

“Glossaryck?” she called, now more nervous than ever, but knowing she had to at least leave her wand. “I found the thing that doesn’t belong…and Mom’s pet pig-goat. So, I guess there’s maybe two things that don’t belong here, or something kinda like that.” 

As though on cue, Lil Chauncey ran over and grabbed one of her boots, managing to drag her to the ground as he pulled it off her foot and ran away. 

The princess let out a sound of frustration before following after the pig-goat. Thankfully, he wasn’t running very fast, so she was quickly able to catch up and get her boot back from him. 

As she was pulling her footwear back on (mumbling under her breath about the slobber on the toe), she noticed that Lil Chauncey had run off again, this time going to sit on a chair. 

“Hey, you, get down from there!” she scolded, walking up to look him in the eye and pointing at ground. As the animal obeyed her command, she said, “What’d you think you’re doing, sitting like a person? My father would be so mad if he found you –“ 

She had been so distracted getting her boot back and then getting Lil Chauncey off the chair that she didn’t realize that she recognized the old rocking chair with her father’s face carved into the back. 

Feeling a little nostalgic for the days when she was really little, barely more than a baby, when her father would hold her in his lap as he rocked the chair, Star jumped onto the rocker and embraced the carved image of her father, whispering about how she loved him. 

Once the feeling had passed, she climbed down and realized that they were standing in the principal’s office – or the memory of the office, she guessed. Meaning that there should be something pretty useful on the desk…

”There you are,” Star said with a smile as she grabbed the intercom microphone and pressed the button. She once again called for Glossaryck, this time hearing her words echo back to her as they filled up the memory-school’s halls. 

However, her mentor still didn’t answer, leaving her to once again wonder how she was supposed to get out of here. Or, maybe, what she was actually supposed to be looking for. 

She had thought any of the things she’d found so far – the blanket, Lil Chauncey, the plush-rattle, or her father’s chair – could have been the thing that didn’t belong in her memories, but apparently Glossaryck didn’t feel the same way, if he wasn’t picking her up yet. Which meant she still had to find it…It was then that she looked out the window and saw something huge looming over the football field. 

“…That definitely doesn’t belong there,” she said in an almost awed voice as she stared at her family’s castle, now standing at one end of the school’s football field, in place of the usual goal post. 

Well, if there was any place that she was sure she’d find something that didn’t belong in her memories, it was there; especially considering she was pretty sure it just showed up, which just made it all the more suspicious. 

She quickly rigged up a sort of makeshift sled out of the rocking chair, using one of the burgers on a bit of fishing pole she found to get Lil Chauncey to pull her along. 

They were heading down the hallway, towards the football field and the castle, when something caught Star’s attention. It was just a little thing, something she barely glanced out of the corner of her eye, but she had to get a second look; there was no way she saw what she thought she saw. So she made Lil Chauncey back up and nearly fell off the chair when she got a better look. 

There, standing barely two feet away from her was…her, or at least, someone who looked exactly like her. 

“Where’re you goin’?” the other Star asked her with a smile on her face. 

Still stunned by the whole thing, Star began to answer the question, before her confusion took over. She cut herself off and asked, “Who are you and why do you look like me?” 

Still smiling, the other Star gave her explanation: apparently being inside of her wand made it so more of her were created, each from a different timeline and with different memories…and they wanted to leave instead of her. 

“So…you’re going to replace me?” she asked, receiving a curt nod and yet another smile in response. Starting to feel extremely uncomfortable the princess shook her head and spoke once more. “Yeah…no…that’s not gonna happen. I gotta go figure out what’s up with the castle. Bye.” 

With that, Star urged the pig-goat on, looking over her shoulder to give the alternate-her a warning glare, a silent warning to stay out of her timeline. She had thought that would be enough to keep things from getting too weird, at least for the time being. 

However, as she made her way down the field and towards the castle, she found herself being followed by multiple versions of herself, all of whom seemed to have found at least the blanket, the chair, and Lil Chauncey.

“Go away!” she shouted at the copies that were following her. She turned her attention away from them when she felt what almost felt like a tightening in her stomach. It definitely hurt, but it wasn’t as bad as other times and it only lasted about a second. Still…

”This is not good,” Star muttered to herself, rubbing her still slightly sore stomach with one hand as the other held onto the fishing pole that led the pig-goat. 

Apparently something about this whole thing was doing…something to her baby, and she did not even want to think about what it could be. She had already been starting to become almost desperate to leave before, and now she was even more determined to find a way out of this place. 

So she urged Lil Chauncey to go faster, which thankfully worked out very well and the two slammed through the doors of the Butterfly Castle. 

As soon as they were inside, Star found herself in awe as she realized that they weren’t in the entrance hall, but she still recognized the room they had entered. 

“This is the Grandma Room,” she said, speaking more to herself than to Lil Chauncey, who was currently trying to stretch himself up to grab the burger that was still dangling above his head. “I haven’t been here since I was really little, like when I was a baby.” 

She felt an odd feeling in her stomach at that moment, which she swore was almost a response to what she’d just said. Despite still being worried about how she was supposed to get out of here before…something…happened, the princess couldn’t help but smile a little as she glanced down at her belly. 

“Well, I was bigger than you, at least,” she said in a soft voice, which quickly broke into a yelp when the hungry pig-goat suddenly jumped up and grabbed hold of the lure-burger with his mouth. With his prize won, the animal started to scarf down the treat, to Star’s horror. 

“No! Bad pig-goat!” she shouted, jumping down from the chair and rushing over to grab the burger Lil Chauncey was eating. “You can’t eat in the Grandma Room – you’ll get crumbs everywhere!” 

That was one of the only things that Star very clearly remembered from when her mother had taken her into the real Grandma Room, all those years ago. Normally she wouldn’t care about something as little as crumbs, but she remembered her mother had made a super big deal about it; she didn’t want to know what might happen if she allowed Lil Chauncey to make a mess in this place. 

Unfortunately for her, that was exactly what _she_ ended up doing: as she pulled the burger from the animal’s mouth, she lost her grip on it, sending the greasy piece of food flying until it splattered against one of the tapestries hanging upon the wall. 

Star felt the blood drain from her face as she walked over to peel the burger from the tapestry, wincing when she saw the greasy stain that was left behind. 

She became even more worried when the dark room suddenly filled with light and she felt herself being lifted off the ground. However, the sensation didn’t last long, and when she looked down, she saw she was standing on some kind of a plaque. 

“What’s this?” she wondered aloud to herself, jumping down from the pedestal so she could get a look at the message engraved on the stone. 

She read the name on the top aloud: “Celena the Shy.” 

Star recognized the name of her great-great-grandma – one of the only grandmas that her mother had actually told her about in detail – and looked up at the image on her tapestry, looking away only briefly to read the message that had been written on her pedestal. 

Her fear of what could happen if someone found the burger stain had vanished, replaced completely with stunned amazement. She didn’t remember anything like this from when her mother had shown her the Grandma Room in the past; though, to be fair, she really didn’t remember much from back then – it had been so long ago. 

Star was so busy looking at Celena’s tapestry that she didn’t pay the slightest bit of attention to Lil Chauncey…until she saw him lifting up his leg while he stood next to another pedestal, set up in front of another tapestry.

She rushed over to pull him away, scolding, “What is wrong with you?!” 

The only answer she got was a bleat as he hopped away, leaving a curious Star to examine the pedestal and the tapestry behind it. This one belonged to someone named Solaria the Monster Carver – a name and image that wasn’t at all familiar to Star. Which kind of surprised her, since if anything, she would have thought she’d remember having a grandma like _that_. 

Her curiosity now peaked – and still not having seen anything that she figured was the thing that didn’t belong – the princess decided to examine some more of the tapestries. 

The next one she looked at was especially enticing, showing a fairly young-looking woman with red spade on her cheeks, wearing an old-fashioned dress and hat, and resting on the forearm of a huge, sinister-looking monster with a fang-filled grin. 

“Eclipsa, Queen of Darkness,” Star read aloud from the plaque in front of her, “To a Mewman king was wed. But took a monster for her love, and away from Mewni fled.” 

Despite herself, Star couldn’t help but be a little impressed at what she read; apparently one of her grandmas was a bit of a bad girl, and she had to admit to finding that kind of cool. 

She was about to check out another tapestry, this one depicting what looked like a blonde ballerina dancing in front of a lake, when she heard Lil Chauncey bleating loudly, tapping his hooves against the floor to get her attention. 

“What’s up with you?” she asked, walking over to see what her mother’s old pet wanted. As she got closer, he hopped onto the pedestal he had been standing near and nudged an image on the tapestry with his snout. 

“Oh, that’s you, isn’t it?” Star questioned as she looked at what the pig-goat was nudging. She ruffled the fluffy hair on his head as she added, in a playful tone, “You wanted to show me that you were on Mom’s wall-rug before you died, didn’t you?” 

Her eyes widened suddenly as she realized what she had just said, and what that meant. 

“Wait – Mom?!” she shouted. Eager to read her mother’s poem-thing, she pulled Lil Chauncey off of the pedestal – thankfully getting no resistance this time – and looked at the words engraved in the stone. 

“The immortal monster will long be haunted,” she read, running her fingers over the words, “By the darkest spell of Moon the Undaunted.” 

She looked up at the tapestry and gaped at what she saw – an image of her mother, not much older than she was, standing atop Lil Chauncey as she fired a spell from her wand at a monster…a very familiar monster. 

“That’s Toffee,” Star said in a stunned tone of voice, placing her hand on the tapestry as she tried to wrap her head around what she’d just discovered. “Mom fought Toffee?” 

She heard something behind her, but she was too distracted by her own thoughts swirling around in her mind to be bothered to see what it was. 

That was, until she heard heavy breathing. Considering she knew she had been alone (except for Lil Chauncey, and she was certain he wasn’t the one panting like that), the new sound made her start to feel a little nervous, mostly because she had literally no idea who – or what – it was. 

She instinctively reached for her wand, before feeling the soft material of the butterfly plush that was in its place and being reminded that she didn’t have her wand here. 

“Okay, so guess I gotta do this the old way,” she muttered to herself as she whipped around, ready to defend herself as she had done back before she received her magic wand. 

She wasn’t sure what she was about to face, but what it ended up being was probably the last thing she ever expected: “Glossaryck?” 

Almost instinctively, Star ripped the blanket off from around her neck, hiding it – along with the plush-rattle that she’d also pulled from her wand-holder – behind her back. 

The little blue man caught his breath and straightened up, floating over to his student as he asked, “Did you find the thing that doesn’t belong?” 

Star thought for a moment, considering the situation before giving her answer. 

“Well, I found my dad’s chair, and Lil Chauncey, over there,” she said, pointing at the pig-goat now happily eating the bit of burger she’d allowed to drop to the floor when she went to examine the tapestries and pedestals. For a moment, she thought about telling him about the other objects she’d found, the things she had hidden behind her back, but after a moment of consideration, she realized something. 

“I…found some other things, too,” she admitted, forcing herself to continue looking him in the eye. “And I thought maybe they were the thing…But, I think they’re here because of something that’s been on my mind for a while now. Everything I found…belongs in my memories.” 

Star looked at Glossaryck, expecting him to be angry, or at least frustrated, at her for failing to find the thing that was messing up her want. Instead, he was shocked to see he looked more anxious than anything. 

His eyes darted from side to side, as though looking out for danger, before he asked, in a voice that sounded just shy of panicked, “Okay, now here’s a much more important question: did you see yourself while you were searching?” 

When she confirmed that she had, his expression actually grew fearful. 

“That is not good. We have to leave, now. C’mon, Star, get into my eyeball,” Glossaryck ordered, holding his eyelids open. “Yes, that’s…that’s what I said.” 

Star frowned at this order. “But, my wand’s still messed up. I didn’t find the thing that doesn’t belong,” she protested. There was a part of her that was scared – mostly because when Glossaryck actually seemed to show some real emotion, it had to mean something was up – but at the same time, she didn’t want to leave with her wand still broken. 

“Star, that’s not important right now!” Glossaryck said, his voice louder than Star could ever remember it being. 

Star was about to protest once more, when she heard a ripping noise, followed by a soft thud. She turned her head towards the sound, and saw what looked like a clawed finger sitting in the middle of the room; looking up slightly made her realize that it had torn away from her mother’s tapestry – Toffee’s finger. 

All of a sudden, a realization hit her and she stared at the finger as she said, more to herself than to her mentor, “That’s the thing that doesn’t belong.” 

She jumped slightly as her words were echoed back to her, in her own voice, at slightly different times. Somehow, she was now in a circle of alternative-Stars, who were also all eying the claw lying on the floor. 

“Star! Now!” Glossaryck ordered, sounding more insistent than ever before. But, now that she knew what she was looking for, the Mewman girl knew she couldn’t just leave her wand to stay broken, or even get worse. 

Taking a deep breath and steeling herself for the worst, she dropped the items she’d been holding behind her back, and sprinted towards the finger, diving at the last moment so she could grab it before any of the other hers could get the chance. 

As her fingers closed around the claw, visions flooded her mind – of Toffee, of Eclipsa, of her mother – before everything went dark. When she opened her eyes again, she was covered in some kind of weird fluid and her heart was pounding, but she was back in her room and she was safe. 

“Did you get the thing?” Glossaryck’s voice made Star turned her head to see her mentor lying on the floor beside her, one of his eyeballs stretched out like a piece of taffy. It also made her recall the last seconds before they’d left the inside of her wand. 

Suddenly feeling a little apprehensive, she opened up her closed fist and saw that Toffee’s finger had exited the wand along with the princess and the little blue wizard. 

“We really need to get rid of that,” Glossaryck said, fixing his eye as he floated next to his student’s head. Star nodded and, without another word, opened up her Secrets’ Closet and tossed the finger inside, closing and locking the door immediately after. Her mentor seemed like he was about to say something, but shook his head instead. 

“So, my wand should be good now?” Star asked, examining the device once more. It looked exactly the same as before, but she knew that didn’t mean much when it came to how well it actually worked. 

Without waiting for a response, she held up her wand and shouted, “Narwhal Blast!” 

A second later, a small narwhal flew out of her wand…with flew being the keyword, as rather than her usual narwhals, this one had little butterfly wings on its back, allowing it to flutter around her room. 

“Well, it’s kinda back to normal, at least,” Star said, watching the narwhal-fly as it floated around. Her spell may not have worked exactly how she wanted, but she was pretty sure that was more because of the pregnancy than any issues with the wand. Satisfied, she sent the little creature she’d summoned back into the wand and sat down on her bed, wanting nothing more than to just relax, at least for a few moments. 

She frowned when she saw Glossaryck floating over to her, a serious expression on his face. 

“What? We fixed what was wrong with my wand, didn’t we?” she asked him. He nodded, and she was about to tell him to leave her be when he started to speak. 

“Your wand should be fine now, but you have to remember that your wand is directly connected to the Realm of Magic,” he explained to her, touching the wand with his finger and making the half-star crystal glow brightly for the briefest of moments. “We got rid of what was causing the issues with your wand, but now I can’t help but wonder if maybe your wand messing up was just a symptom of something else…” 

Then, all of a sudden, the little blue man dropped his serious demeanor and shrugged his shoulders. “But, most likely not, and even if there was something going on in the Realm, nothing you have to worry about right now – that sort of thing only affects things that grow inside of the Realm of Magic,” Glossaryck said with another shrug as he turned himself around and started to float back towards the Book, which still lay open on Star’s bedroom floor. 

Hearing his words made Star nervous, wondering what kinds of “affects” he could be talking about. She knew she had to try and get more out of him…but also knew she couldn’t say too much, just in case he’d tell her parents about this conversation. 

Trying her best to sound casual, she asked, “What kind of stuff grows there? Magic beans or something?” 

“You should probably talk to your mother about this,” Glossaryck told Star, looking over his shoulder at the princess, who frowned in response. “This is kind of something that mothers and daughters talk about.” 

Upon seeing Star’s less than positive reaction to his suggestion, the magical man simply shrugged again, vanishing into the pages of the Spell Book and shutting it tight. 

Star sighed and lay back on her bed, just staring up at her ceiling. No matter what Glossaryck said, there was no way she was going to even consider asking her mother about this; she just couldn’t take that risk. She felt a slight twinge in her stomach just then. 

“Don’t worry,” she whispered, rubbing her stomach gently. “I’m not gonna let anything happen to you – I promise.”

Feeling a little better now, she allowed herself to relax, closing her eyes and letting her breathing even out. 

She could almost feel herself drifting off to sleep…when she heard a knocking on her door. 

For a moment, she tried to ignore it (she kind of really wanted to just take a nap, just for a bit), but when whoever it was knocked again, she decided it’d be better to at least see what it was they wanted. She walked over and opened the door, slightly surprised to see Marco – sans his hoodie – standing in the doorway. 

“Sorry for bugging you, Star,” he said, glancing inside the room as he spoke. “I was just wondering if you’ve seen my hoodie. I can’t find it anywhere.” 

Star shook her head at his question. “I can help you look for it, though,” she told him, stepping out into the hallway and closing the door behind her. To her surprise, Marco frowned at her offer of assistance. 

“You sure? I mean, you seem kinda tired…” he said, sounding like he was somewhat unsure of what he was saying. 

His words confused the Mewnian girl, until she started to think a little more about it. She hadn’t really seen herself since before she had gone into her wand, but she did have to admit to feeling kind of tired – that whole thing had been pretty draining, in more ways than one. 

“…I guess I am a little tired” she admitted with a sigh. She knew there wasn’t really any point in denying it; Marco would most likely be able to tell she was lying if she tried. Noticing that he was about to say something, she quickly added, “But I can still help you look. I mean, how long could it take?” 

A small voice in the back of her mind told her that she was making a big mistake, asking that, but she ignored it. She really did want to help her friend, and she really didn’t think it would take that long to find the missing hoodie. 

After all, it had to be somewhere in the house, and the house really wasn’t all that big; probably wouldn’t even take an hour to search the whole place and find what they were looking for. And it’d take even less time if they split up, though while they did divide up the rooms for a short while, it didn’t take long until they were together again. 

As they continued the search together, at one point, Marco spoke up, saying, “Things got really quiet for a bit, earlier. I have to admit, I was starting to get a little worried.” 

For a moment, Star felt herself getting angry; did he really have so little faith in her? But, she quickly forced herself to calm down, realizing that he most likely didn’t mean it that way. Plus, from previous experiences, it made sense to assume that no noise for a while was a sign that something was wrong. She still wanted to reassure him, though. 

“It’s not that big of a deal, really,” she told him, waving her hand dismissively to help illustrate her point. “My wand was just acting really weird, so Glossaryck had me go inside to figure out how to fix it. Didn’t realize it took so long to do all that, though. It really didn’t feel like I was in there that long.” 

A small sound from Marco caused her to look up from the bit of furniture that she had decided to search underneath. She turned to face him, silently requesting that he share what was on his mind. 

This silent request was enough to make him blush – though just a little, barely noticeable, really – and he admitted that she hadn’t really been in the wand for all that long; but he still got kind of worried. 

Star couldn’t help but let out a very brief chuckle at this; it was kind of cute, she had to admit; and definitely sweet that he cared. She was about to say something, when she thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye – something red. 

“Hold on, Marco” she said, holding up a finger for about half a second before following after the glimpsed image. “I think I just saw your hoodie.” 

Without another word, the princess darted off in the direction she thought she’d seen the hoodie moving in, keeping her eyes peeled for any other signs of the thing. It didn’t take too long before the missing object was recovered, but unfortunately…

”Looks like the puppies wanted to play,” Star said as she watched two of the laser puppies play tug of war with each other, each holding a sleeve of Marco’s hoodie in their teeth. 

Marco – who had followed after Star when she’d said she saw his hoodie – groaned at the sight, before sighing and going over to retrieve his clothing, grumbling under his breath as he walked. 

As soon as he got close enough for the puppies to notice him, they immediately stopped their game and turned their attention to him, tails wagging as they barked excitedly, clearly not noticing the irritated expression on the boy’s face. 

An expression that faded away not long after, as when he bent down to grab the forgotten sweater, he found himself being “attacked” by his pets, who started to jump up and lick his face. Marco was clearly trying to stay angry at the puppies for taking his hoodie, but it didn’t take long for him to loose that particular battle of wills. He sighed and gave a slightly tired smile as he gave one of the puppies a scratch behind the ear, receiving an appreciative bark in response. 

He still picked up his hoodie, however, looking disappointed when he noticed all the clear evidence that the puppies had gotten their hands on it. 

“Aw, man…” he sighed, voice just barely audible to Star, who had become the newest victim of the puppies’ affection. She watched as Marco touched one of the sleeves, cringing at the feeling of the damp fabric. She thought for a moment, trying to figure out how to make things better. Her eyes lit up as she remembered her latest adventure.

“You want me to clean that up for you?” she offered, waving her wand slightly. 

“I dunno, Star,” Marco replied, looking at the wand briefly before looking back at Star, who frowned at his words. “It’s not like I don’t trust you, but your magic’s been really…weird for a while now.” 

Star wanted to protest, even going so far as to open her mouth in preparation to give some kind of an argument…but quickly realized he had a point. Even if her magic was apparently better now that she had taken Toffee’s finger out of the wand, she was still pregnant and that meant her magic was still kind of out of her control. 

“Yeah, I guess you kinda have a point,” she reluctantly admitted, putting her wand back and scratching her cheek with one finger. 

“Thanks for the offer, but I think it’ll just be easier to throw this in the wash, and just grab another one for today,” he said, gingerly folding up his hoodie so that the drool-soaked sleeves were inside. With the lost article of clothing now recovered – and after he had thrown it into the laundry hamper to be washed later on – the two teens went to Marco’s room, where he quickly grabbed another hoodie from his closet and threw it on, looking much more comfortable now that he was fully dressed in his signature outfit. 

Once that was done, he took a seat on his bed, where Star was already seated. 

“…I’m thinking of talking to Jackie soon.” The voice was so low, and the words said so quickly, that Star had to do a double-take to be certain she’d heard anything at all; and when she was sure Marco had said something, she still had to ask him to repeat.

When he did, she couldn’t help but let out a squeal of delight and start bouncing a little from the joy and excitement that had suddenly flooded into her.

“Really?” she asked, closing the small gap between them, meaning there was now very little space separating the two of them. Marco backed away slightly before nodding. 

“Yeah,” he said, smiling a little as he spoke. “I mean, ever since the sleepover, she’s been coming over and talking to me a lot more than she ever did before, so I think there might actually be a chance that she really does like me.” 

Star frowned at this bit of self-depreciation, preparing to protest when Marco continued talking. “So I was thinking of maybe asking if she wanted to go to the movies next Friday, or something like that.” 

She was still excited and happy for him, but when she heard him say that, Star swore she felt that weird feeling in her chest again; the same thing she felt when he’d ignored her after the sleepover.

“So, it’s like a…date, then?” she asked, hoping that the weird feeling wasn’t evident in her voice. 

Actually asking that question made her feel even stranger, and the worst part was, she didn’t even know why. Maybe she was actually getting sick…

Star mentally shook the thought out of her head; she could worry about that later, if there was anything to worry about at all. Instead, she decided to focus on the present, gesturing for Marco (who seemed hesitant to respond) to answer her question. 

“Well…kinda?” he finally admitted, seeming unsure of himself. “I mean, it’s not like I’m going to say no if she wants some of her friends to come see the movie, too. So, I guess it’s sort of like a date, but not necessarily?” 

He sighed and flopped down on his mattress, rubbing his face as he spoke once more, his hands muffling his voice slightly, “It’s really confusing, and I’m honestly feeling kind of sick just thinking about it…but if I don’t do it now, who knows when I’ll even feel close to ready again?” 

Star was unsure of how to respond. Thankfully, before she had to say anything, she heard the puppies starting to bark – a perfect reason to excuse herself, at least for a bit. 

“I’m gonna go take the puppies for a walk,” she announced as she got up, not waiting for an answer before she left the room.

She was actually glad the puppies needed a walk at that moment. Maybe getting out for some fresh air would help with whatever was going on with her.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next week passed by in what felt like the blink of an eye – surprising considering there really wasn’t much to differentiate it from most weeks, other than two kind of significant events. 

The first being the first Friendship Thursday with Pony Head joining in, which didn’t end up going as great as Star had figured it would. Sure, she knew that Marco and Pony Head weren’t exactly best friends, but she had thought having two of her friends to hang with on Friendship Thursday would make it twice as fun. 

But, not only were they gone for a good chunk of the day, but when they finally got home with the pizza, it was kind of disgusting in pretty much every regard. 

She’d actually been grateful that her friends had fallen asleep, because as soon as she got a whiff of the alleged pizza, the baby decided she wasn’t a fan, either; meaning Star ended up spending the next few minutes over the toilet, and couldn’t eat anything for the next hour. 

So, that ended up being a bit of a bust – though she wasn’t totally against the idea of trying it again. But, maybe next time she’d go get the pizza instead. Or they could just order delivery or something like that; it really didn’t matter to her.

The other thing that made the week a little more interesting was getting to read the chapter in the Book of Spells that Eclipsa had written. Ever since she’d seen her tapestry hanging up in the memory-Grandma Room in her wand-memory-castle place, Star had to admit to having developed a bit of a fascination with that particular grandma of hers. 

A fascination that wasn’t at all helped by the fact that Glossaryck seemed really reluctant to let her see the chapter; which, of course, just made her want to read even more. 

Though, once she actually got to read it, she actually found it kind of underwhelming. Considering how reluctant Glossaryck was to even let her take a peek at the contents of Eclipsa’s chapter, and everything she had gathered about the Queen of Darkness up to that point, she had expected something a lot worse than she got. Really, most of the fun had just come from finding a way that she could read the chapter in the first place, rather than from anything she read in the chapter itself. 

Now she was back in school, and while it hadn’t really been the most interesting week so far, Star had a feeling that was going to change. Mostly because – despite him having said the week before that he was thinking of asking Jackie to go to the movies with him – Marco had apparently finally decided he was ready to actually make the attempt. 

Unfortunately, his first try didn’t end up going over so well, as he described to Star and Janna during lunch. 

“I don’t know what happened!” he groaned, planting his face on the tabletop. While Star patted his shoulder reassuringly – and Janna just casually sipped her soda and watched the scene with mild disinterest – Marco continued to describe the failed attempt at an invitation. 

“I swear I was all set to ask her to the movies – I was actually confident for once,” he said, lifting his head so his words weren’t muffled. “But, right when I’m about to ask her to the movies, instead of doing that, I just burst out with some super embarrassing stuff about sweating and it just got too weird…” 

Star wasn’t exactly sure how she was supposed to respond to that, other than just trying to comfort him over the situation. She was given an opportunity to help when Marco – having seemed to have suddenly recovered from his misery – asked to borrow a pen. 

“Yeah, okay,” she said, reaching into her backpack for a pen to hand over to him. It wasn’t until she’d handed over the object that it occurred to her to ask what he needed a pen for, especially considering it was still time for lunch; it wasn’t like he needed to take notes right now. Her question was answered when she heard him starting to mutter something to himself as he pulled out a piece of paper and started to write. 

“Jackie, do you want to go see a movie with me Friday night?” Marco dictated to himself, never once looking away from where Jackie was seated as he wrote the note. Once he was done writing, the boy carefully folded up the note and went to deliver it. 

Star watched the scene, frowning slightly as she felt the strange feeling return. She pushed away her tray of food; it’d be best to wait and make sure she wasn’t going to get sick before she ate anymore, she figured. Instead, she decided to once again focus on Marco’s efforts, silently encouraging him and hoping for things to go well for him. 

So far, things seemed to be going pretty well: Marco had given Jackie the note, and she was about to read it…

”Marco can’t grow hair on his chin, but he can on his back?” Jackie looked and sounded both confused and slightly grossed-out as she read the note that Marco had given her, causing the poor boy to become panicked as he took the piece of paper back from her. 

Seeing her friend in such distress, Star wanted to do something, anything to help. However, before she could do anything, Marco had backed away from Jackie’s table, accidentally bumping into Chet from the swimming team in the process and spilling the older student’s lunch all over his jacket. 

“I am so sorry,” Marco said, staring at the massive stain with horror in his eyes and his face practically glowing. 

Chet just shrugged and dismissed the issue, saying Marco didn’t have to worry. Then things got really weird – Marco suddenly said that he thought Chet should punch him, and when the older boy reacted with confusion, he literally grabbed his arm and forced the punch. 

“What happened?” Star asked a few moments later, holding down the button on the water fountain so Marco could let the cold water hit his now-swollen eye. 

“I don’t know,” Marco groaned. “I just…couldn’t stop myself from just blurting that stuff out.” At that moment, Jackie passed by and Marco once again blurted out something very embarrassing. Then, all of a sudden, he started grabbing at his neck and screaming like he was in pain. 

“Marco! What’s wrong?” Star asked, taking hold of her wand as she desperately tried to see if this was something she could help with. 

Marco couldn’t answer, and just let out one final yelp of pain as something literally just popped out of the side of his neck. Breathing heavily from the ordeal, it didn’t seem like the Earth boy had noticed the new addition to his body…at first. But after a moment of catching his breath, he noticed the round growth and let out a shudder…which evolved into a scream as the thing turned around to reveal a little face with what looked like slicked- back black hair. 

At first, the sight was just shocking, but as the cogs in her brain started to turn again, Star finally decided how she felt about the new little addition to her best friend’s body.

“It’s like a little ‘Marco Jr.’” she cooed, gently poking the little guy on the cheek. The little guy made a delighted sound, while Marco just grumbled something that she couldn’t understand. Janna walked over and introduced herself, grabbing Marco’s hand to greet “Marco Jr.”. 

“Janna, that’s not his hand,” Marco protested, sighing as the girl ignored him. “And can you please stop calling him that? It’s making the whole thing even more uncomfortable than it already is.” 

“Sorry…” Star said in a small voice. When he said that, she felt a bit sick to her stomach; mostly because she figured she knew why calling the little neck-guy “Marco Jr.” was uncomfortable for him, and it served as a bit of a painful reminder for her as well. 

After all, she still hadn’t told him about their baby yet, despite so many times of trying to force herself to just tell him the truth. Though, the way he was reacting to the nickname for the neck-guy didn’t exactly make assuage the concerns she had over how he could react when she told him.... 

But, she couldn’t worry about that right now; she had to help her friend with…whatever this thing actually was. Now that she was over the initial cuteness of the little head on Marco’s neck, the princess did realize that something about him seemed a little familiar, though she couldn’t quite pinpoint why. 

“Actually,” Janna said, interrupting the Mewnian girl’s thoughts and snapping her to attention. “I think he looks familiar. Lemme go check something out real quick.” 

A few moments later found the three outside of Marco’s locker, which Janna opened with no effort, much to Marco’s horror. She then pulled out a secret panel, out of which she produced a fairly thick book with a leather-bound cover. 

“Let’s see…” the dark-haired girl said to herself, flipping rapidly through the pages. After a few seconds of searching, she stopped on a page and showed it to the other teens. “Looks like I was right – he’s the Naysaya.” 

“Yes, that is Naysaya, when Naysaya was much younger,” Naysaya sighed, sounding almost nostalgic as he looked at the picture of a pilgrim with the same little head growing out of his neck. “Naysaya does wonder what became of Jonathan. Jonathan was quite entertaining.” 

Marco ignored everything, and just asked Janna what exactly Naysaya was supposed to be. 

“It’s a demon curse,” she replied, sounding completely uninterested. “Basically he’s just going to keep blurting out your secrets for everyone to hear, until…I dunno, whenever he’s done, I guess.” 

At the mention of demons, Marco went from looking concerned to looking annoyed. He looked over at Star, and the two of them shared a brief look. 

“You don’t think…” Star began. She knew she didn’t need to say anything, considering there was no doubt they were both thinking the same thing. After all, what other demon not only knew Marco but would have any kind of reason to put a curse on him? 

Marco just sighed and shook his head as he replied, “I know.” 

He held out his hand in a silent request, which Star granted by handing over her dimensional scissors. 

“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” he told her before he cut open a portal and stepped through. The bell rang less than a minute later, signaling the end of lunch and the start of classes once more. 

“I’m just gonna wait for Marco – he won’t be long,” Star told Janna when her friend gave her a questioning glance upon seeing the princess wasn’t moving. Janna shrugged and continued on her way; whether she was actually going to class or not, nobody knew but Janna herself. 

Soon enough, Star found herself alone in the hallway. 

With no one to talk to, and nothing much to do besides just waiting for the portal to open up again, she became bored rather quickly, but stayed where she was. She even refrained from playing with her wand, despite knowing that – no matter what the result would be – doing so would result in something interesting at the very least. Still, she hoped she was right in assuming that Marco would return soon – she could only stay in one spot without doing something for so long. 

A sudden wave of nausea hit her at that moment, but it thankfully only lasted a second or so and it didn’t seem like anything was going to come out of it, in any sense of the word. Still, that feeling served as an uncomfortable reminder that she really couldn’t wait for too long. 

“C’mon, Marco,” Star muttered, looking at a clock face on her wand. “How long’s it take to ask a demon about a curse?” 

She was starting to feel a little sick again, and had the horrible feeling that she was going to have to take care of it this time; she wanted to wait, but he was just taking a little too long. Just as she was about to run to the bathroom, however, a portal suddenly opened up in front of her, with Marco stepping out of it. 

“What-“ she began to question, unable to keep herself from sounded frustrated. Upon seeing the expression on his face, however, her own expression softened, as did her tone. “What happened?” 

Marco just handed over the scissors, said he was going home, and left, pulling up his hood to cover his head – and Naysaya, who was starting to say something before the fabric covered him up and cut him off. 

Feeling concerned (and a little guilty over starting to snap at her friend), Star pushed down the sickening feeling and started home herself; she had to make sure Marco was okay, and if he wasn’t, she wanted to at least try and fix things, however she could. 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Marco? Can I come in?” Star asked, knocking on the door to her friend’s bedroom. When she didn’t hear any response, positive or negative, she figured that meant she could do whatever she felt was right; and at that moment, she knew she had to see him and see if there was anything she could do.

Upon opening the door, she saw Marco sitting on his bed, surrounded by pillows and looking distraught, while Naysaya looked like his birthday was happening every day of the year. 

“…What did Tom say?” she asked, looking between the two with concern. 

Marco just looked down at the mattress and kept his mouth shut. Naysaya, on the other hand…

”Thomas says that Marco will have Naysaya forever, because Marco is so insecure,” the little head announced, practically purring with delight as he said the words. The boy sighed in defeated as he finally looked over to Star and began to explain what Tom had told him about the curse. Apparently it would go away on its own, but only after Naysaya had blurted out all of his insecurities and secrets for everyone to judge. 

“Which, knowing me, is going to take forever,” he concluded, falling back into the pile of pillows he’d set up. He was grabbing a pillow and placing it over his head when Star thought of something…rather concerning. 

“So…he’s going to want to tell people… _everything_ that you’re afraid of them knowing?” she asked, voice shaking ever so slightly. 

“Yeah…” Marco replied, his voice muffled by the sound of the pillow. It seemed to take a moment for him to realize what she was getting at, but after the moment had passed, he suddenly sat up, dropping the pillow onto his lap. 

The two just looked at each other with horrified expressions for several moments. Obviously they both knew what the issue was, but neither wanted to actually say anything about it; partly because, even all these months later, the memory was still fairly fresh, and partly because, well, they had made an agreement to never talk about it again. 

“Well, Naysaya cannot say any secrets of Marco’s that would harm Star as well.” Naysaya’s voice broke through the silence just then, causing the two teens to look at him for a second before once again looking at each other. 

With the apparent assurance that what happened between them that day would remain just between the two of them, things were significantly calmer. 

But, things still weren’t exactly better, considering that was only one of many things to worry about at the moment.

“C’mon, Marco,” Star said in a gentle tone of voice, stepping over and sitting on the bed beside her friend. She placed a hand on his shoulder, trying her best to ignore both the way he seemed to flinch slightly at the contact, and the weird feeling in her chest; there were more important things to worry about. “You can’t let Naysaya keep you from doing what you want, especially when you’ve already come so far. After all that, why stop now, just because of a demon curse?” 

When he didn’t respond, or even look at her, Star sighed and got up, pulling out her scissors and preparing to cut open a portal of her own. 

“I gotta get back to school,” she said, opening up the blades. She hesitated and looked over her shoulder, hopefully adding, “Maybe I’ll see you there?” 

Once again, Marco didn’t say anything, and just continued to stare at his bed sheets. 

Realizing there was nothing more she could do for him, she let out a sigh and cut open a portal to the school. As she was stepping in, she swore she heard Naysaya’s voice saying, “She’s a good friend. And rather lovely, if Naysaya may say so. Naysaya can see why Marco wanted –“. 

Star felt her cheeks start to warm up slightly from what she’d just heard, but she did her best to force them to cool down. She probably wasn’t hearing things right – the portal was kind of loud, after all; and even if she did hear Naysaya correctly, she couldn’t be thinking of something like that when her best friend was so upset! 

She returned to school and went to class, getting massively chewed out by the teacher for being late, but she just accepted it without any argument or complaint; she was too worried to really care all that much about getting in trouble. The period passed slowly, until finally they were let out to go to their next and final class of the day. 

Still feeling bad about not being able to help more with Naysaya, Star half-walked and half-trudged to her next class, wondering if maybe Marco would show up as well; but knowing it wasn’t likely. 

Suddenly, she heard a familiar voice: “So this is the Jacqueline that Marco practiced asking out in the mirror! Marco even used his own reflection to practice kissing, so he could be ready if Jacqueline ever gave him a chance.” 

Star gasped at the sound of Naysaya’s voice, and turned her head to see Marco, wearing a scarf and glaring down into it as Jackie sat nearby, looking utterly baffled. She couldn’t tell what Marco was saying to Naysaya, but she figured it wasn’t anything good, considering his body language. She could, however, hear Jackie’s reaction. 

“Look, I gotta go” she told Marco, standing up and putting on her helmet. “You’re…really confusing me.” 

“Jackie, wait!” Marco shouted, holding out his hand in clear desperation for her to stay. “I’m not the one saying that. It’s…him.” 

The boy seemed to brace himself as he ripped off the scarf, revealing Naysaya to a group of obviously shocked students; the only ones who didn’t react to seeing the curse-created “man” were Star and Janna. 

Marco looked at Naysaya and sighed, before looking back at Jackie and saying, “Jackie, there’s nothing I can do. I’ve got this curse on me, that’s going to make me tell you all this stuff I’m worried about…but I still wanted to ask you if –“ 

He was cut off by Naysaya practically squealing, “Marco hasn’t taken a bath since he saw that shark movie. He fears the tub.” 

To Star’s slight surprise – and great joy – Marco didn’t react the same as the other times one of his insecurities was announced; rather, he just sighed and admitted to it. The feeling of pride only grew as he continued to list off things he was afraid to let people know, some of which were things even Star hadn’t known about him; much to her surprise. 

When he was done, he looked down at Naysaya, who seemed stunned into silence. 

Star couldn’t hear what he said, but she had a feeling it was what Marco wanted to hear, seeing as the next thing he did was turn to Jackie and say, “I have no idea if you’d want to, after hearing all that, but I still think it’d be great if we could hang out together Friday night.” 

The Mewnian princess couldn’t keep herself from bouncing in excitement as she watched the scene unfold before her. And when she heard Jackie’s response – an invitation for Marco to join her and some friends to see a movie on Friday, the excitement just became too much. Without really thinking of it, she launched herself at Marco, tackling him to the ground as she gave him a very brief, but very tight hug as soon as Jackie was out of earshot. 

“You did it!” she cried out in delight as she helped him up, still bouncing with joy. She was also starting to feel a little aware of that weird feeling again, but she was so happy for her friend that she decided she could just ignore it. 

While not acting as excited, Marco was obviously just as proud of himself for what he’d just done. However, there was still the issue of Naysaya…

”How does this work?” Marco asked, looking down at the curse with an uncomfortable expression. “Do you just…flake off or something?” 

Naysaya wouldn’t answer the question, instead just saying that he’d never been to see a movie before, resulting in Marco letting out a defeated sigh as he started heading towards class.

Star just watched him leave, confused as to what his reaction meant, before heading to class herself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What’s everyone so excited for?” Star asked Marco as they walked to their first period class. It seemed like everyone they passed was super excited about something, but she had no idea what it was. 

Not that she was complaining – she loved seeing people acting like this. Still, considering how most people acting during school, she couldn’t help but be curious over this sudden change in her classmates’ behavior. 

When she noticed her friend spacing out a little, she couldn’t help but get a little frustrated. 

“Marco!” she said, giving his shoulder a poke in an attempt to snap him out of his trance. She guessed she’d poked him a little harder than she had intended, considering the yelp he gave and how he rubbed his shoulder while giving her a glare. 

“Sorry,” she said sheepishly, before repeating her question from before. 

“They’re probably just looking forward to the dance. It’s coming up at the end of the week,” he replied. 

All of a sudden, Star felt herself being filled to the brim with anticipation, and for good reason. She absolutely _adored_ dances, even the more formal ones like the ones she had to participate in at the Silver Bell Ball each year. And the fact that this was her first dance on Earth just made it even better, since it was always fun to see how different things on Earth were from similar things on Mewni. 

However, she felt herself deflate a little when she noticed the look on Marco’s face. Apparently her best friend did not share her enthusiasm over the situation. 

Feeling concerned over his behavior, the princess asked, “Are you okay?” 

“I’m fine,” he said, though it seemed like he was trying to convince himself as well as her. “It’s just…dances make me nervous. Especially one like this, where everyone expects you to bring a date.” 

Now Star went from feeling concerned to feeling confused; why would people expecting him to bring a date to the dance make Marco so nervous? Considering how well things had gone when he had gone to the movies with Jackie and her friends, Star would have figured that wouldn’t be an issue at all…

”You’re not gonna ask Jackie?” she asked, almost immediately wondering why she’d spoken the words aloud, and regretting it almost as quickly. She knew that she shouldn’t pry into something like this; while he was becoming more confident in regards to the situation, she knew that Marco was still kind of unsure about how to approach the whole thing regarding Jackie. 

Marco looked away, scratching the back of his neck with an unsure expression as the two of them continued to walk. It took a moment or so before he actually responded to what he’d been asked. 

“I don’t think so,” he said. “Going to the movies was fun, but that was with a bunch of her friends. This is completely different, and I’m not sure I’m ready for that yet.”

Star wanted to respond, but she didn’t know how. It didn’t help that she wasn’t even exactly sure how she felt at the moment. Obviously she felt bad for her friend, because it was pretty clear that the situation was upsetting him; but, at the same time, she couldn’t help but feel something that felt oddly similar to, of all things, relief. 

That really confused her; why would she feel relief over learning that Marco wasn’t going to ask Jackie to go to the dance with him? It just didn’t make any sense…

Her thoughts were interrupted by something strange: a feeling in her stomach. It wasn’t nausea, like she’d experienced so many times before, or even any of the odd feelings she’d had in the past. This felt strange, but not exactly uncomfortable; if she could compare it to anything, it was kind of like feeling a popcorn kernel popping inside of her belly. 

Despite it being such a small thing, it was enough to make her pause for a moment, though she didn’t know exactly why. Maybe she was waiting to see if it would happen again? Or maybe she was just wondering what exactly that was, since it was such an unfamiliar sensation, even among all the odd feelings she’d experienced since discovering her pregnancy.

Star then noticed that Marco was looking at her, with a look that she was sure mirrored her own from a few moments ago. And figuring she knew what he was thinking, she decided to speak up before he could say anything about it. 

“It’s okay,” she said, perhaps a little more insistently than she had intended; maybe she was trying to assure herself as my as she was trying to assure her friend, if she was being totally honest. 

She was pretty sure that whatever that weird feeling was, it wasn’t anything bad…but at the same time, it made her feel kind of weird. As did the fact that she still couldn’t exactly shake the feeling of relief over knowing that Marco wouldn’t be asking Jackie to be his date to the dance, and she still had no idea why she felt that way. 

After that, the two of them seemed to make a silent agreement to drop the issue of the dance – at least for the time being – and just get to class before the bell rang and they got in trouble for being tardy; not a horrible punishment, but still something to be avoided if they could help it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

As the days went by, and the night of the dance got closer and closer, Star noticed that it seemed like everyone at the school – including some of the teachers – was getting more excited with each passing day. And that definitely included her as well; ever since Marco had told her about the dance, she had been very eager to go, mentally counting off the days until the event. 

Marco, however, did not seem to share her enthusiasm. Whenever she’d bring up the topic of the dance, in any capacity, he’d either just try and change the subject, or he’d keep his responses as brief as he possibly could. 

After a couple days of this, Star finally decided that maybe it was best to drop the subject, rather than make her friend even more uncomfortable than he already seemed to be. 

Besides, it wasn’t like she didn’t have other things to think about in the meantime. Not only did she have the dance to look forward to, but there was also this dead clown named Bon Bon that Janna had told her about; apparently the one hundredth anniversary of his death was coming up really soon, and he was supposed to come back from the dead to celebrate it. 

The girls had agreed to meet up in the cemetery where he was buried in order to be witnesses to the event. They were even going to bring a cake and set up a shrine and everything – it was going to be just like a party! 

And that was on top of normal school and magic stuff, even if Glossaryck seemed to be trying to get her to actually train even less than he normally did…

And there was still the whole issue of the weird popping sensation in her belly. Star still had absolutely no idea what it was, but she felt it happening again several times over the past few days. It never hurt or even felt uncomfortable to her, but she didn’t think she’d ever get used to the sensation; which wasn’t helped by the fact that it seemed to just happen randomly, without any clear warning. 

But, yeah, she had more than enough to keep her mind occupied without having to bother Marco about the dance. 

So, it came as a great surprise to Star when Marco almost cautiously stepped through the open door of her bedroom and began, “Hey, Star? You know how the dance is tomorrow?” 

“Yeah…” she responded, looking at him with confusion in her eyes. She was wondering why he was bringing this up all of a sudden, especially considering how much he’d tried to avoid the topic of the dance for the past week. 

“Well, I was just thinking – and it’s fine if you don’t want to – but I thought it might be nice if we went together,” Marco said, avoiding eye contact with his friend the entire time he spoke. 

If Star didn’t know any better, she would have also sworn that there was a bit of a red tint to his cheeks. However, she dismissed that thought, mostly because she was more focused on what he had just said.

If there was one thing that she hadn’t expected him to say when he’d brought up the subject of the dance, it was that. In fact, it was so unexpected that she didn’t know what to say in response, and just sort of looked at her friend in silence for a moment or so; which apparently was just long enough for the quiet to start to become uncomfortable, as Marco seemed eager to break the silence once the moment had passed. 

“Just a friends, I mean. I didn’t mean to imply…” he said, taking a deep breath before continuing. “It’s just...I told you about how I get really nervous going to stuff like this, and I thought maybe if we went together, it’d be, I don’t know, a little easier? At least, I figured we could just have fun hanging out while we were there…” 

He trailed off then, glancing at his friend as he awaited her answer to the invitation he was offering. Having now recovered from the slight shock, Star smiled and nodded slightly, before giving a verbal answer as well. 

“Yeah,” she said, sitting back in her chair and kicking her feet slightly to help show her enthusiasm. “That all sounds great.” 

She did still kind of wonder why Marco felt the need to ask her about going to the dance together as friends. While they hadn’t actually discussed the issue at all over the week between when she’d found out about the dance and now, she had just kind of assumed that they’d be doing something like this. Or, maybe they’d just end up hanging out at home, if Marco really didn’t want to go; yeah, Star really wanted to go to the dance, but she would have felt bad leaving Marco home alone, and just as bad forcing him to go if he didn’t want to. 

So, she was glad that he wanted to go. And, if she was being totally honest, she had to admit that it did feel kind of nice that he actually asked her to go to the dance with him. She couldn’t exactly explain why, but she couldn’t deny that she kind of liked it. 

“Sounds great,” Marco said with a slight smile, visibly relaxing once Star agreed to go with him to the dance. 

He then excused himself, saying he had to finish up his homework, leaving Star alone in her room with her thoughts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

The day of the dance had finally come, and Star and Marco had been volunteered for the task of helping to decorate the school gymnasium for the event. 

Well, Marco had been volunteered to help set everything up, while Star had actually requested to be a part of it. Both because she thought it might actually be fun, and she didn’t want Marco to have to do all the work alone. After all, work in general wasn’t exactly what Star would call “enjoyable”, and working alone was even worse; even work was usually a lot more fun when you got to do it with a friend. 

Plus, it always took less time when you worked with someone, which was a definite benefit. In fact, they were already most of the way done, despite the fact that they had done all the decorating by hand. 

Star had offered to use her magic to get it done quicker, but ultimately it was decided that it’d be best to do things the Earth way; especially considering her magic was still kind of unpredictable, and the last thing anyone needed was for all the work that was already done to end up being for nothing because of some magical accident. 

They were hanging up a banner – Marco on top of the ladder, attaching the banner, while Star stood at the bottom and held onto the latter to keep it steady – when Marco said, “Thanks again for agreeing to come to the dance with me, Star. I had this nightmare last night, where I came to the dance alone and all my teeth fell out, and everyone just kept laughing at me. And then Jackie showed up and told me that I looked pasty.” 

He looked genuinely horrified as he described his dream to the princess. Upon apparently realizing where he was, he shook his head and added, “Anyway, I’m really glad we’re going together. It makes the whole thing a lot easier for me to deal with.” 

Star just smiled up at her friend, though she couldn’t understand what he was so worried about. Then again, this was Marco she was talking to. She may love hanging out with him, and the way he acted was a major part of that; but even she couldn’t deny that he had a bit of a tendency to over-think things and worry about stuff that really wasn’t worth worrying himself over. 

“Not a problem,” she said with complete sincerity. She was going to say more, when all of a sudden she felt something really weird. 

It wasn’t like the other weird feelings she’d felt throughout the past week – those felt kind of felt like popping bubbles or something kind of like that, while this kind of felt like someone had punched her in the gut, but from the inside. It didn’t hurt, but it was shocking enough that Star couldn’t stop herself before a small noise escaped from her mouth. 

“Are you okay?” Marco asked. Star looked up to see her friend looking back down at her with a concerned expression on his face. 

Wanting to reassure him, she just smiled and gave a brief nod, doing her best to act like nothing had happened. He didn’t seem entirely convinced, but apparently chose not to press the issue and instead just returned to the task at hand. 

The two of them stayed like that for the next few minutes, with Marco hanging up the banner while Star kept the ladder steady. 

That was, until Marco let out a surprised noise of his own and fell off the ladder, knocking over Star in the process. 

“My leg!” he cried out in a panic, grabbing an shaking the aforementioned limb, “I can’t feel my leg!” 

“You’re grabbing _my_ leg!” Star cried out in response, causing the boy to look down and discover that he was indeed holding onto his friend’s leg, rather than his own. He quickly let go of her leg, looking rather sheepish as he did so. 

“What happened?” Star asked as they got back on their feet. 

“I don’t know,” Marco confessed, briefly giving a nervous glance up at the air duct. “I thought I saw a huge rat in the air vent a minute ago – it was freaky.” 

The Mewnian princess was about to say something in response, when her thoughts were once again interrupted by the same jabbing sensation she’d felt a few minutes earlier. 

Now that she’d felt it again, she had a sudden realization of what it actually was. 

“I…I’m gonna go get something to drink,” she said, walking towards the table without waiting to see if her friend had anything to say in response. 

Once she got there, she grabbed one of the many paper cups filled up with juice that had been left out for the students and teachers helping to decorate for tonight’s dance, and took a sip. There wasn’t any ice, so the juice was warm by now, but it didn’t taste that bad. And, besides, while she did want a drink, the main reason she’d come over here was just to have a reason to excuse herself and get away from Marco for a few moments so she could think without having to worry about him asking a ton of questions that she wasn’t ready to answer. 

Well, now she was pretty sure she knew what those weird feelings she’d been getting for the past week were- it was the baby moving around.

It was actually kind of difficult for Star to wrap her head around this discovery – was the baby already big enough that Star could actually feel her moving around like that? Well, obviously she was – there was pretty clear evidence of that. But, it just didn’t seem like that much time had passed…

Though, now that she was thinking about it, she did realize that it had been about five months since she’d gone through mewberty and the whole “incident” had occurred. The time felt like it had flown by, but it really had been that long, as had as it was to believe. And considering it took about nine months for babies to be born, that meant she only had like four months before the baby came…

”Oh no…” Star muttered to herself as she felt her heartbeat starting to race. She grabbed another cup of juice and drained it, hoping that maybe getting a drink would help calm her nerves a little as her mind started to race.

It didn’t help, at all. 

Now that she had realized just how quickly the time up to now had come and gone, she was starting to wonder if the time she had left would go by just as quickly. 

She really was not ready for any of this. She had no idea what it was going to be like when she had the baby, never mind after she was actually here and she had an actual baby to take care of. And that wasn’t even going into the whole thing of her still having not told Marco that she was pregnant. 

Time was running out on all those things, and it terrified her. 

“Hey, Star!” The sound of someone calling her name was enough to bring the Mewnian princess out of her thoughts; something she was incredibly grateful for. She looked up to see Janna, standing by the door to the gymnasium and holding a large box. 

Seeing her friend made Star excited, not only because it helped distract her from her thoughts, but also because the box reminded her of their plans for tomorrow night.

“Janna-Banana!” Star exclaimed cheerfully, tossing the two empty cups into the garbage can and running over to meet Janna by the bleacher. “Did you get it?” 

As she asked the question, she pointed to the box the dark-haired girl was holding. She had a feeling she knew what was inside, but there was something about asking that made the whole thing even more exciting than it already was; it made it seem a little more like a surprise. 

To Star’s disappointment, Janna shook her head…only to reveal that she had made what was inside the box, lifting up the lid to reveal a layer, slightly greasy-looking and drooping chocolate cake with the words “Welcome Back Bon Bon” written on it to a very excited princess. 

She shut the lid and covered up the cake. “Time to see if the legends about Bon Bon are true. Let’s find out if Bon Bon’s really gonna come back – just like his candles,” Janna said with an almost conspiratorial smirk. 

She let out a very brief chuckle as she added, “Tonight is gonna be so wicked.” 

“Oh yeah,” Star responded with equal enthusiasm, which quickly made way for confusion as she realized what Janna had just said about tonight. “Wait…I thought Bon Bon was supposed to come back tomorrow.” 

She could have sworn that was what Janna had told her, back when she’d given her that picture of the dead clown that she’d torn out of one of the books in the school library. Maybe her friend had made a mistake and forgotten what today was? 

Star looked at Janna, hoping against all odds that this was the case, but felt her heart sink a little when the other girl just shook her head, confirming that tonight was the night the clown had promised to return from beyond the grave. Upon seeing this, Star let out a small moan. 

“No, no, no. I promised Marco that we’d be dance-buddies tonight. I can’t just –“ she was stopped from saying any more when Janna came up and grabbed her head, pushing it forward so that their cheeks were squished up against each other. 

“Star, let’s be real,” Janna began in what was probably the most serious tone Star had ever heard her use. “What are you going to remember more: a high school dance, or a dead clown séance?” 

Star took about a half-second to consider her options. Yeah, she was excited to go to the dance and hang out with Marco…but she’d been to tons of dances throughout her life, and even if it was always fun, her and Marco got to hang out together literally every day. The séance, on the other hand, was something she’d never gotten to do before (none of her friends were into that kind of stuff before she met Janna), and apparently this was going to be the only chance she had to do it. There’d be other dances, she was sure, but only one dead-clown-séance. The choice was easy to make. 

“Dead clown séance” she responded. Despite having no trouble making the choice, she still felt a little bad about making it. After all, she had promised Marco that they’d go to the dance together, and now she had to break that promise. 

She felt another nudge inside her belly right then, almost like it was punctuating the guilt. Letting out a sigh, she said to Janna, “Just let me tell Marco that I can’t make it tonight.” 

The dark-haired girl just shrugged, turning on her heels to exit the building; presumably she was going to do more to get ready for the séance, but Star didn’t know for sure. Anyway, it didn’t really matter; she had something more important to worry about. She took a deep breath and walked towards Marco, who was currently talking with Jackie about…something; Star couldn’t hear what it was they were discussing. 

As soon as she was close enough, she reached over and tapped him on the shoulder, saying, “Hey, Marco?” 

He turned around and she was about to give him the bad news, only to notice that his eyes were shimmering with joy and his face was practically split by the wide grin he was sporting. 

“Jackie-Lynn Thomas just asked me to the dance,” he said, his voice sounding like something between an awed whisper and an excited squeal. “And I said yes!” 

For the briefest of moments, Star thought she felt the weird feeling in her chest again, but it passed so quickly that she figured it was nothing; assuming she hadn’t just imagined it in the first place. Something suddenly seemed to hit Marco, as he went from looking overjoyed to looking like someone had given him quite the shock to his system. 

“Wait, but you and me, we were gonna go together,” he said, pointing between the two of them with an anxious expression. Star just waved her hands – a way to tell him not to worry. 

“No, this works out great,” she said with a relieved smile. “It turns out I made plans to go to the cemetery with Janna to see a dead clown come back to life, so I can’t make it to the dance anyway.” 

She watched as her friend’s body language became much more relaxed at this statement, and decided to erase any doubts that may have still lingered in his mind about what he was supposed to do tonight. 

“You should totally go to the dance with Jackie – just make sure you tell me all about it, ‘kay?” 

For a moment, he still seemed slightly hesitant, but all it took was one final nod of encouragement before that doubt completely melted away, replaced with joy and excitement. Star watched with a smile as her best friend literally danced his way out of the gymnasium. 

Once he was gone, she took a look at the room and all of the decorations that had been put up. There was still some work to do, but she didn’t think it was so much that it couldn’t be finished by the other volunteers. Plus, she had to get ready for tonight – she didn’t know much about séances, but she had a feeling that required some preparations, and she needed to make sure she was ready. 

So she called to Miss Skullnick – who was overseeing the decorating – to let her know that she was heading home for the day, not waiting for a response from her teacher before taking out her scissors and cutting open a portal to her bedroom. 

Normally she would have just gone after Marco so they could go home together, but she figured she’d probably want to be by himself for a little bit. They’d meet up soon enough, anyway.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Star sat in the Diaz’s living room with Janna, bouncing in her seat to try and relieve some of the energy that was flowing through her; a stark contrast to her friend, who was slumped back in her chair, acting for all the world like she’d been there all her life. 

The time for their visit to the graveyard to await Bon Bon’s return was quickly approaching. 

They were just going to wait for Marco and Jackie to leave for the dance, and then Janna’s mother would be coming to drop them off for the séance. The doorbell rang, and Star practically catapulted herself from her seat, announcing that she would answer it. 

However, Marco’s mother got to the door first, though Star was still right there when she opened the door to reveal Jackie-Lynn Thomas, standing there in a beautiful blue gown. 

“Hey, Angie, Star,” Jackie greeted the two other women with a relaxed smile, which very briefly morphed into a look of surprise as the princess grabbed onto her arm and eagerly pulled her inside. 

“Oh my gosh,” Star said in an awed voice as she looked over Jackie’s outfit. “You look like the _ocean_.” 

Jackie smiled, graciously accepting the compliment, before looking over her shoulder to greet Janna, who gave only a grunt-like noise to acknowledge the other girl. The lack of response didn’t seem to bother Jackie; she just smiled, before turning back to look at Star and inquire about the whereabouts of her date. 

“Marco’s getting ready. He’ll be down pretty soon…probably,” Star answered, adding the last part after a moment of thought. After all, if she knew Marco – and she did – he wouldn’t want to come down to greet Jackie until he was absolutely certain he was ready; that was why he’d been making such a fuss over Janna and Star being in the bathroom while he was preparing himself for the dance a few moments ago, after all. 

As if on cue, Marco’s voice came from the top of the stairs, causing all eyes (save for Janna, who seemed much more interested in the flashlight she was currently messing around with) to fall upon him, Star’s included. 

And when she saw Marco, standing at the top of the stairs in his suit, she swore she felt her heart stop, but in a good way. If she was being totally honest, she’d always found him kind of cute, but there was something about that moment that made her feel…different; in a way she couldn’t quite describe. It almost felt like she was just going to float away…only to be hit with a sinking feeling as Marco got to the bottom of the stairs and walked right past her to greet Jackie.

“You look…amazing,” the boy said, looking at Jackie’s dress with an admiring glance. 

Star felt a twinge in her chest as she heard him say that; she could remember when she’d been getting ready to leave for the Blood Moon Ball and he’d said that exact same thing to her. 

Her heart felt like it was literally chugging inside her chest, and all the excitement she’d been feeling up to this point just faded away. She wanted to leave the room, but before she could excuse herself, she felt a pair of broad hands on her shoulders as Mr. Diaz requested, “Star, please take a photo of my son and his beautiful date.” 

“Yeah…sure,” Star replied, halfheartedly pulling out her compact mirror and snapping a picture of Marco and Jackie in the doorway. She just stared at the picture for a moment, still feeling the slow chugging of her heart, before finally lowering her hand so she could tell Marco (and Jackie) goodbye and wish for them to have a good time at the dance…Only to see that the two of them had already left, leaving the princess with an odd pain in her chest and a mind swirling with confused thoughts and emotions. 

Suddenly drained off all the energy she’d had before, Star simply took a seat next to Janna and decided to wait for her friend’s mom to come get them. Fortunately it didn’t take long before Mrs. Ordonia arrived and they were on their way to the cemetery. 

Maybe preparing for the séance and getting to see Bon Bon would make her feel better, or at least help keep her mind off of these weird feelings she was getting from thinking about Marco and Jackie…

Despite her trying desperately to keep her mind on the upcoming séance, Star found her mind constantly drifting back to Marco, keeping those uncomfortable feelings bubbling at the surface of her mind. 

Not helping was the fact that the baby was moving around a lot – which was just an incredibly weird sensation to begin with, even without the added issue of her tumultuous thoughts or the weird aching in her chest when she thought about her friend. 

Star gently rubbed her stomach as they made their way towards the cemetery; maybe she could at least get the baby to calm down a little. So far, it seemed to be working: the baby was still moving around quite a bit, but nowhere near as much as she had been a moment ago. 

“You feeling okay?” Janna asked, causing Star to look at her with confusion. “You’ve been touching your stomach a lot, so I thought maybe you were getting sick or something? D’you want me to see if my mom can take you home?” 

Star felt her heart beginning to race as her cheeks felt like someone had set them on fire. How could she not have realized that what she was doing was going to look weird to everyone else? 

“No!” she said, quickly pulling her hand off her belly. Noticing the questioning look she was getting from Janna, she forced herself to calm down considerably before correcting herself. “I mean, I’m fine. Tummy’s just feelin’ kind of weird, ‘cause I’m so excited to get to see Bon Bon.” 

She did her best to sound enthusiastic, hoping that would be enough to convince Janna, at least enough to keep her from getting suspicious again. A few tense moments passed where Star waited to see whether her friend would accept or explanation or not.

Finally, Janna shrugged and returned to gazing out the window, making it clear she was done with the conversation. And once again, the car was silent, save for the faint sound of the music Mrs. Ordonia had chosen to play over the radio – kept low because it was apparently not something that teens enjoyed listening to, according to her. 

Star felt a series of nudges to her stomach, in what almost seemed like a demand. However, despite how much she wanted it to let up, even just a little, she kept herself from rubbing her stomach anymore; her excuse for why she had been doing it before probably wouldn’t hold up so well the second time, and that was seriously the best she could come up with. So, for now the best she could do was just hope that the baby would just calm down on her own soon. 

Then again, this was better than thinking about Marco and Jackie and the dance…

Star winced, feeling that weird tightening feeling in her chest again; why was she feeling like that when she thought about those two? The car sudden lurched to a stop, causing Star to snap out of her thoughts, at least momentarily. 

“Okay, girls,” Mrs. Ordonia said cheerfully as her daughter and her friend grabbed the supplies for their séance and climbed out of the car. “You have fun with your little dead clown’s party. I’ll be back in a few hours to pick you up.” 

Before she could drive off, something went flying through the roof of her car, resulting in both a loud crash and an ear-splitting scream of fright, courtesy of Mrs. Ordonia. The combination of sounds was enough to get both girls to turn around; and as they did, they were greeted by Star’s spell book, which quickly flipped open to reveal Glossarcyk, who actually looked kind of excited, almost like a weird blue, bearded puppy-dog. 

Star didn’t know what surprised her more: the fact that he was here, or the fact that he looked so _happy_ to be here. 

“What are you doing here?” Star asked, not realizing until after she had actually said it just how rude that sounded. Sure, Glossaryck could be annoying sometimes (okay, pretty much all the time), but she never wanted to hurt his feelings, even if he said he didn’t have any.

If he was bothered by what she’d said, however, he was exceptionally good at hiding it; his expression barely changed, if it changed at all. Instead, he just floated up a little, saying, “I wanted to see this dead clown of yours come back”, as if it were the most obvious answer in the world. 

Neither girl had a response to this, or any real reason to object to the princess’s mentor to join them on this little excursion; so Janna just gave her mother a slight wave to let her know they were all set. 

As soon as Mrs. Ordonia’s car was gone, the trio started to head towards the gates to the cemetery, which creaked eerily from the soft breeze that filled the air. Janna and Glossaryck led the way – mostly because they were the ones with the lights, thanks to Janna’s headlamp and the crystal set in Glossarcyk’s forehead – chatting about something as they walked. 

Meanwhile, Star was trudging behind them, staring down at the box in her arms, which held the cake they were going to use to welcome Bon Bon back from the grave. She didn’t hear a word of what her companions were saying; her thoughts were occupied by something else entirely, something she couldn’t stop thinking about, no matter how hard she tried.

It wasn’t until she heard Janna calling her name that she finally looked up at the other people with her. 

“What do you think?” Janna asked, obviously referring to whatever it was that her and Glossaryck had been debating a few minutes earlier…something Star had completely neglected to pay even the slightest bit of attention to.

Rather than admit that she didn’t know what her friend was talking about, the Mewnian girl instead decided to ask for her opinion on something that was seriously bothering her. 

“Don’t you think it’s weird that Marco asked _me_ to go to the dance with him, and then changed his mind and went with Jackie at the last minute?” she asked, trying to hide just how hurt she felt, thinking about the subject. “I mean, that’s not cool, right?” 

“What? No – you told him that you didn’t want to go to the dance, because you wanted to see Bon Bon,” Janna said, both her face and tone showing mostly confusion, tinged with the slightest bit of irritation. 

Star blinked, her mind going blank for a second. She had completely forgotten that she had told Marco that she wanted to go to the cemetery with Janna tonight, rather than going to the dance with him. But, now that she’d gotten that (painful) reminder, the memory came flooding back to her and it took a lot of willpower to keep from actually wincing as she once again felt that weird twinge in her chest. 

“Right…” she said, her voice too low for anyone else to actually hear, as she once again lowered her gaze to the box in her arms. 

There wasn’t much else to say after that, so the three just continued on their way through the cemetery, looking for any indication as to which grave belonged to the birthday clown they were hoping to see. 

Despite being somewhat distracted, it was actually Star who spotted it – covered in overgrown foliage, but otherwise amazingly pristine, with a carved picture of the face of a laughing clown and an inscription, which the two girls read aloud in unison: “I will come back.” 

The three companions looked at each other with excitement at having found what they were looking for; that meant they were one major step closer to actually getting to see Bon Bon come back from the dead, just like he’d promised in the legends. Janna placed the box of supplies she’d been carrying down on the ground. 

“Alright,” she began, cracking her knuckles with a determined look on her face, kneeling down and starting to pull some tape from the box. 

She looked over to Star and continued with what she was going to say, “Glossaryck and me will work on the summoning circle, and you get the shrine ready.” 

With that, she pushed the box towards the princess, who nodded in response. 

She was actually glad to have been given a task that would take some time to do by herself, especially without using magic – which was how she was planning to go about this job. Anything that would keep her mind off the dance – and Marco and Jackie in general – was definitely welcome right now; and since the baby had apparently decided she wanted to take a nap or something, Star needed a new distraction. 

So, she just nodded in agreement and carried the box of supplies over to the gravestone. Janna hadn’t exactly said how she wanted the shrine to look, but from the pictures in the book Star had flipped through, she had a basic idea.

So, while Janna and Glossaryck began working on the summoning circle (whatever that was…), Star busied herself with using the supplies in the box to set up the shrine on Bon Bon’s grave. It was slow-going, even more so than she had planned; mostly because, no matter how much she tried to focus on the task at hand, she couldn’t stop thinking about Marco. As a result, she had barely made a dent in the project by the time Janna had finished drawing the circle with the tape and placed the cake in the center of the tape-clown’s nose. 

And when Janna asked how the shrine was coming alone, Star felt incredibly guilty as she looked at her barely completed project. 

“It’s…not really going anywhere,” she admitted, letting out a sigh as stepped away slightly from what little work she had done. 

There was something seriously bothering her and, while she didn’t want to ruin the night for anyone else, she also kind of wanted to just…vent a little; maybe see if talking about what was bothering her could make her feel any better. At the very least, she figured it was worth a shot. 

She pulled out her phone and then looked at Janna, hesitantly asking, “Can I ask you a question about something?” 

The dark-haired girl looked just the slightest bit perturbed as she asked a question of her own: “Is this about Marco again?” 

Star felt her cheek warm up slightly; was it really that obvious what was on her mind? She had to admit that it kept forcing its way into her thoughts, but she had wanted to believe that she was doing a better job hiding it than that. Not wanting to admit to the truth, she tried to deny it…only to realize about two seconds in that nobody was even going to pretend to buy her claims. 

“Okay, so here’s the thing,” she said, flipping open her compact mirror-phone to show the picture she had taken of Marco and Jackie before they left for the dance. “You see how just because Marco has a mole, suddenly Jackie’s got to have like eight of them? I mean, who does something like that?” 

Star looked at Janna to judge her reaction, only to see that her friend looked more confused than anything. “Those are freckles, Star – they’ve got nothing to do with Marco,” she said, rather bluntly in Star’s opinion. Knowing Janna, however, there was a good chance that she was trying to reassure her friend, even if it was abundantly clear that she had absolutely no idea why the Mewman was so bothered by this particular topic. 

Despite her friend’s attempt to help, Star could help but think about the picture and feel…weird about it. So much so that it was hard for her to take her eyes off of the image, despite the pain she was starting to feel in her chest. That was, until Janna’s finger tapped a button and the picture vanished, replaced with an icon of a trash can. “Oh, no, I accidentally deleted the picture,” Janna said, forcing Star to lower her arm so they could see eye-to-eye. 

“How about we just get back to working on Bon Bon and forget about all that?” There was a part of Star’s mind that didn’t know if she was angry or thankful that Janna had deleted the photo, but she also knew that it probably would be for the best if she took her mind off of the whole thing, and the séance was the easiest thing to focus on besides that…

”Okay,” Star said, giving a small smile. The smile faded as she turned around and continued to work on the shrine – still working slowly, but this time, she was going to make sure she at least finished her task.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

It took a while, but finally Star had completed the shrine for Bon Bon; and she was actually kind of proud of it, if she did say so herself. It wasn’t super fancy, but she thought it looked nice. She looked over her shoulder with a hopeful grin as she called, “Janna – what do you think?” 

Not getting any response, she became confused. Standing up, Star once again called out to her friend, at which point she noticed the sound of someone snoring. Going over to investigate, she saw Janna sleeping…in an empty grave. 

“Janna, come on,” Star grumbled, kicking some lose dirt over her snoozing friend in an attempt to wake her. “The shrine’s all done. What’s next?” 

Despite the soil landing on her, the sleeping teen just groaned slightly and rolled over. Obviously she wasn’t going to be waking up anytime soon, and since Glossaryck seemed to have retreated into the Book for whatever reason, Star was pretty much left alone. 

Letting out a sigh, she took out her phone and, after thinking about it for a moment, tapped the button that recovered the photo that Janna had deleted before. As soon as she saw it, her heart sank and she sat back against one of the gravestones, just staring up at the night sky. 

“…I’ll just give him a call,” she said to herself, swiping away the photo to get to the call function on the compact. She dialed the number to Marco’s cell phone and waited for him to pick up…only for it to go to voicemail almost immediately. 

Star left a message for her friend to hear when he had the time – nothing too fancy, just asking how he was doing and requesting that he give her a call when he got home – and then hung up. She had hoped that would make her feel better…but it didn’t. 

For reasons she couldn’t fully explain, she kept calling him, getting more and more frustrated each time the voicemail answered instead of her friend. 

“Marco,” Star groaned after what felt like the hundredth time she heard that weird robot-lady’s voice, “Why don’t you just pick up your phone?” 

Having finally had enough, she snapped her compact shut and shoved it back into her pocket. 

“Maybe I should just take a nap or something…” she mused to herself, leaning her head back and closing her eyes, with the intent of trying to do just that. Before she could even begin to drift off, however, she felt some movement inside of her stomach. 

“Hey, you awake now, too?” she asked, laying her hand on her stomach and keeping her voice low as she spoke; she didn’t want to wake either of her companions right now. She felt another nudge, almost like the baby was responding to her question. All of a sudden, an image came to Star’s mind – something she had seen in her Book of Spells at one point; a picture of an eye, with a description that said it could be used to spy on people…

”You wanna check up on your dad? See what he’s doing?” Star asked, looking down at her belly as she spoke. When she felt a soft bump against her palm, she smiled slightly. “I’m gonna take that as a yes.” 

With that, she got up and walked over to where the Book was, flipping it open to find Glossaryck snoring in between the pages. 

“Hey, Glossaryck? What’s the name of that spying spell?” she asked him, trying her best to hide just how eager she was to use it. 

When he gave her the name – the All-Seeing Eye – he was still obviously mostly asleep, but still apparently lucid enough to give his student a warning: “Spying leads to crying.” 

Star was offended by what she felt the warning implied. “Well, I’m not spying,” she told him as she flipped to the page that held the spell she was looking for – one of the pages in Eclipsa’s chapter; it was probably one of the more interesting parts of the whole thing, if she was being totally honest. After she had read the spell, the princess shut the Book, leaving her mentor to finish his nap while she did her thing. 

She took a deep breath, and began to recite the incantation: “I summon the All-Seeing Eye, to tear a hole into the sky. Reveal to me, that which is hidden. Unveil to me what is forbidden.” 

A beam of energy shot out of the wand, pushing Star back slightly. Once she recovered from the push, she opened her eyes to see a what looked like a portal in the sky, but unlike the ones she used to travel around, this one showed a very clear image…of Marco, on a skateboard with Jackie, the two of them holding tightly to one another. 

Star couldn’t help but let out a sound that was somewhere between a gasp and a small cry as she watched, her chest tightening so much she swore it was about to crack. 

Her heart began to pound as she watched the scene in front of her, and feelings of hurt and betrayal started to fill her. She felt the baby starting to kick like crazy – probably in response to her own pounding heartbeat – but she was too focused on watching Marco and Jackie to even consider doing anything about it. 

As she continued to watch, the feelings of sadness began to melt away, replaced almost completely with the almost burning sensation of anger; though the feeling of betrayal remained strong as ever. Here she was, having to deal with all of this super-difficult stuff – including having to worry about _their_ baby- all on her own, and Marco was just off having fun with Jackie, acting like he didn’t have a thing in the world to care about! 

She was so angry, she just wanted to…

Star let out a growl, which quickly changed to a horrified gasps as she saw a flash of green light spark off of one of the wheels of Jackie’s skateboard, sending both the passengers flying off. As the two teens landed with a pair of heavy thuds on the sidewalk, the princess backed away from the portal; the movement of her wand causing the image to dissipate. 

“What was that?” Star wondered aloud, staring at her wand in confused horror. 

What happened to Jackie and Marco was magic – she had no doubt about that; the question was what had caused it? Did she have another burst while she was watching them? She didn’t think so, but the only other explanation was – 

Her thoughts were interrupted as she felt herself falling, punctuated by an annoyed protest from her accidental cushion: Janna. 

“Did I do that?” Star asked herself, still looking at her wand in horror as she continued to think about what had happened with the spying spell. 

“Yeah – you fell on me,” Janna replied, rubbing her ribs where Star’s elbow had slammed into them when the princess had fallen into her grave. 

Star didn’t even notice the irritation in her friend’s voice; she was too busy thinking about what had happened before. 

The only thing that made sense was that she’d somehow used her magic to make the skateboard crash, but how could she have done something like that? Sure, she was angry…and hurt…and…The more she thought about it, the more she realized that, even if she was horrified to actually see it happen, there was at least a part of her that, before it happened, had wanted it to happen. 

That absolutely terrified her, and made her start to wonder if maybe coming to the cemetery tonight had really been the best idea. 

“Hey, Janna?” Star asked as the two of them climbed out of the grave that the dark-haired girl had been sleeping in and the blonde had fallen into. “You mind if I just –“ 

Before she could finish her request, she noticed that Janna had stopped paying attention to her, instead gazing over her head with a look of amazement that Star couldn’t ever remember seeing her make. The princess was about to ask what her friend was looking at that was apparently so interesting – only for her question to be answered before she could even ask it. 

“You came back,” Janna said in an almost reverent tone, stepping around Star to get a better look at what – or to be more accurate, who – she was speaking to. Star’s eyes widen as she realized who Janna had to be speaking to – Bon Bon the Birthday Clown himself, the very ghost they had set this whole thing up for. 

Eager to see him for herself, Star whipped around…only to be greeted by what appeared to be a looming shadow, tall enough to absolutely tower over the teens, with a very round head and the pointy hat that instantly gave away his identity as a clown. 

Star couldn’t help but be somewhat amazed – as well as a little confused; based on the picture Janna had given her to put in her spell book, she had been imagining Bon Bon as being kind of short and tubby, not tall and lean like this. Maybe that was a side effect of having been dead for a hundred years? 

Then he leaned forward, the light from the light candles on the cake illuminating his face enough for his features to be seen more clearly. Upon seeing the clown’s face, Janna’s own face took on a slightly disgusted expression. 

“That explosion really did a number on your face,” she commented with a cringe. 

Star, on the other hand, was starting to get the feeling that something weird was going on here. A suspicion that was quickly proven correct as the supposed ghost clown slowly stepped over to the side, revealing a gigantic eagle perched atop the back of an equally massive spider. Star’s eyes widened in recognition – she had seen those animals before! 

“Am I late for the party?” croaked the little clown, held against the bird’s breast by its folded wings. As he spoke, he gave a wicked grin and held up a wand, the crystal glowing green and illuminating his face completely, confirming what Star had already basically figured out. 

“Ludo!” she cried, sounding more annoyed than anything. She wasn’t really too concerned about fighting him; even with a wand of his own, she knew she would be able to handle him without much trouble. 

Narrowing her eyes slightly at her old enemy, Star began to reach for her wand, only to flinch out of surprise at the last moment as a swarm of rats that were almost as big as the monster himself came rushing out from what seemed like everywhere. 

They raced out from behind the trees, the gravestones, the bushes – no matter where the girls looked, it seemed there were rats flooding out, until they were all but surrounded. Ludo grinned, and opened up the wings of his bird, allowing himself to land on the spider’s back before gently sliding to the ground. 

“Now, princess, are we going to get to do this the easy way? Or the fun wa-augh!“ 

Before he could complete his sentence, Star grabbed her wand and fired off an energy blast; nothing fancy, just a simple blast of magic to push away the monster and his minions. 

“Janna?” Star asked, looking over to her friend. “Do you think you can handle the rats for a few minutes while I take care of Ludo?” 

Janna seemed to survey the situation for a moment, before turning back to Star and nodding. 

“Definitely – I wanna show them what happens when you mess up a séance,” she declared. Without saying another word, Janna ran through the swarm of stunned rodents – not really taking too much care to avoid treading on their tails if the occasional soft squeaks of pain were any indication – until she made it to her box of supplies. 

While her friend took care of that, Star turned her attention to Ludo, who was slowly getting to his feet, holding his hand in one claw and groaning as he stood. Star decided to let him get up; she wanted this to be a bit more of a fair fight. Mostly just because, while she was still annoyed at him showing up, she had suddenly realized that a fight with Ludo could very well be just the thing she needed to keep her mind off of…other things. 

She took the briefest of moments to pray that her spells would work as she wanted – and that she wouldn’t get any bursts to have to work around – before firing off another blast. 

This time Ludo was prepared for it, and countered with an attack of his own. The two spells met in the middle and fizzled out with a crackle and a few puffs of brightly-colored smoke, causing no real damage. 

For the few moments, Star kept herself busy with Ludo and the spider and bird that followed him around; using her spells more to just knock them around and momentarily incapacitate them than anything else. It was actually kind of fun, and easy enough that she was able to take a moment to steal a glance at Janna. 

Her friend was currently dealing with the rats, using the hairdryer she had taken from the Diazes bathroom as a sort of flail. She didn’t seem to be having as easy of a time as the princess was, but she honestly seemed more frustrated and annoyed than worried, so Star decided that she’d avoid stepping in, for now. 

Instead, she turned her attention back to Ludo. Deciding to take a brief rest from the spell-casting, Star chose instead to engage in a little bit of banter. 

“Why are you dressed like that?” she asked, using her wand to gesture to the clown outfit the little monster was wearing. “No offense, Ludo, but it seems a little crazy to get all dressed up just to fight me.”

Ludo’s cheeks went bright at this; apparently what Star had said actually offended him more than what she had intended. The bird-like monster let out a strangled-sounded growl before angrily pointing at the Mewnian princess and screeching, “At least I don’t talk to my stomach!” 

Those words made Star’s eyes go wide and she felt her heart stop for a moment – how much did he actually know? She tried her best to keep calm; losing her cool wasn’t going to help anyone.

However, any ability she had to stay calm vanished entirely when Ludo added, “Only a really crazy person would think that their stomach had a da-“ 

“Mystic Room Suck Transform!” Star cried, without really thinking. Before, she hadn’t really been taking the fight too seriously – it was mostly just for fun. Now, she knew she had to end it, and keep Ludo from saying anything else that could potentially put her secret at risk. 

There was a part of her that wondered if this was going too far, as she heard Ludo panicked cries as he desperately tried to escape the suction of the vortex being emitted from Star’s wand; but she pushed those feelings down as far as they could go. This was something she had to do, even if she felt kind of bad about it. 

She tried her best to ignore Ludo’s cries (they just made her feel worse about the whole thing)…until she noticed someone coming towards them. It was Marco…with Jackie. 

Star felt the same horrible combination of feelings from before, when she had seen them together through the All-Seeing Eye, and she squeezed the handle of her wand tighter, feeling her arm start to shake ever-so-slightly. 

Then she noticed something – something…didn’t seem right. She didn’t even have a moment to wonder what was wrong, as the instant that realization hit her, there was a flash of green light and Star felt herself go flying back…and then everything went dark. 

Star wasn’t sure how long she was out for, but she woke when she felt a strong wind, combined with the feeling of her body being pulled backwards. Realizing what was happening, she desperately tried to locate something, anything, that she could hold onto to prevent herself from being pulled into the portal into the Void that she had created. 

She finally managed to grab hold of a stone in the ground; but with how strong the pull was, she wasn’t sure how long she’d be able to hold on for. She just hoped it’d be long enough…

”What do you even want with me? You have your own wand now!” she said to Ludo as he stepped towards her, being careful to stay back far enough to avoid the pull of the portal. 

To her surprise, Ludo just chuckled. “What makes you so sure I’m here for you? Are you really that selfish?” he asked, his gaze trailing off to the side as he spoke. Star followed his eyes to see what exactly he was looking at. 

When she saw it, she was hit with a very strong wave of confusion. 

“My spell book?” she questioned, looking back at the monster in front of her. What in the world did Ludo want with her spell book, of all things? 

“Yes, yes,” Ludo confirmed with a nod of his head, not even looking at her as he spoke. That is, until he gave her a rather nasty-looking grin and added, “I figured it’d be fine for me to just take it. After all – you’re not going to be getting much use of it where you’re going.” 

He held up his wand then, the black half-star crystal pointed directly at her and starting to glow bright green as it charged with magical energy. Desperate for any way to avoid being blasted and sent into the swirling portal behind her, Star frantically glanced around, looking for anything that she could use to delay Ludo’s attack. Finally, she found it. 

Without fully thinking, she reached over and grabbed the cake that Janna had set up -just being able to stretch enough to grab it without risking losing her grip on the stone – and flung it at Ludo as hard as she could. 

The monster cried out as the cake splattered against his face, but he recovered quickly and just glared at the princess with annoyance…until the candles that were covering his head relit themselves. 

He began to scream as he ran away, calling for help. 

Star couldn’t exactly see or hear much after that, but she did hear Ludo say, “Grab Spider – we got what we came for,” and felt her heart sink, knowing what she meant by that. 

She wanted to stop him, but the pull of the portal’s suction was too strong. It was taking all she could to just avoid being sucked in, much less fight against it enough to escape and stop Ludo before he could take her book. 

The pull felt like it was getting stronger, and Star desperately tried to grip the stone harder as she felt her fingers starting to slide off. Despite how hard she tried to hold on, she soon lost her grip on the stone and began flying towards the portal behind her. Star closed her eyes, bracing herself for whatever she was going to feel when she went through – only to feel the jerk that came from a sudden stop. 

When she opened her eyes, she saw Marco grabbing her hand tightly, his heels dug into the ground and his eyes shut tight to protect them from the dust that the portal’s suction was blowing about. It didn’t take long before Star got over her shock enough to realize that she was still being pulled towards the portal – and that Marco was being dragged along with her. 

“Marco! Let go!” she demanded. “You’re going to get pulled in, too!” 

Despite her warning, Marco didn’t release his hold on her hand; if anything, she felt his hand grip hers even tighter after she said that. 

“I’m not letting go!” Marco cried back, confirming what his gestures had already suggested. Star struggled to keep her eyes open as the wind blew by her face, causing her eyes to feel dry; but she managed to watch as Jackie took hold of Marco’s hand, and then Janna take Jackie’s free hand in her own. 

The added strength was enough to keep them from moving too quickly towards the portal, and after a few of the most terrifying seconds of Star’s life, the portal finally closed and she fell to the ground, no longer held aloft by the wind her spell had been producing. 

She was safe now, she told herself as she struggled to get her heart rate back under control; it was pounding hard enough that she was convinced something was going to end up being broken by the force. Not to mention that the baby was clearly not happy with the situation, considering Star could feel her moving around like crazy practically every other time she felt her heart pulse inside her chest. 

When she finally managed to get both her heart and the baby calmed down, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see who it was. 

“Are you okay?” Marco asked his friend, his concerned tone matching his face perfectly as he helped get the princess back on her feet. The girl was still a little shaken from the whole ordeal, but physically-speaking, was otherwise fine. So she nodded, giving a little smile. 

The smile faded away as she watched Marco go back over the Jackie, to make sure she was okay as well. Star felt the pain in her chest again – the heartbreak, she was starting to realize – and turned away. 

When she did, she saw the place where she had left the Book of Spells; it was now empty. 

“It’s…it’s all gone” she said in a soft voice, talking more to herself than to any of the others around her. She began to pull on her hair as she paced around, continuing to speak. “All of the spells…My family’s entire history…It was all in the Book, and now it’s… _gone_. I’ve lost _everything_.” 

She was suddenly hit with a painful realization – she didn’t see Glossaryck anywhere. Had he still been inside the Book when Ludo had taken him? He must have been; now Ludo had him, too. 

“I lost Glossaryck…” she said, her words lost in a sob as she began to cry. She couldn’t – and at the moment, didn’t want to – stop the tears from flowing; this was the only way to get even a semblance of relief from the pain she was feeling, and she needed it. 

Once again, she felt a hand on her shoulders, and she lifted her head from her hands to see Marco, looking at her with a face that showed nothing but sympathy; despite everything, it did make her feel a little better, though not much. 

“We’ll get them back, I promise,” he told her as he began to pull her into a hug. 

Star, wanting the comfort that she knew would come from the embrace, started to return the gesture…and then she felt the baby move. 

She pulled away, doing her best to ignore the look of wounded surprise on Marco’s face as she did so. It wasn’t that she didn’t want a hug; right now, she didn’t think there was anything she wanted more. 

But…what if he felt something? Marco was really smart, so Star was sure it wouldn’t take him very long at all to realize what was going on if he felt something moving when he hugged her. And even if he wasn’t angry about the baby, she was sure he’d still be upset with her – after all, she had kept this from him for months. Even if she hadn’t meant any harm, and she had wanted to tell him, that didn’t change the fact that she’d kept this from him; and she was sure he’d be so angry with her for that. Maybe even angry enough to just end their friendship altogether. 

She couldn’t risk that. After losing the Book and Glossaryck and everything that came with them, she just couldn’t risk losing Marco, too; especially not when it already kind of felt like she _had_. 

Feeling overwhelmed with the emotions of fear and sadness that flowed through her, the young princess continued to sob into her hands. As she cried, she felt someone take her hand and give it a gentle squeeze; she didn’t even have to look to know it was Marco. 

Despite herself, she smiled a little through her tears, feeling a surprising amount of comfort at the gesture. 

She had lost so much tonight, but at that moment, she realized that she didn’t have to deal with it all alone; and that helped, so much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is easily the longest thing I've ever written, not only for this story, but just in general. I actually kind of surprised myself when I saw the final length, and that's taking into consideration the fact that I knew this was likely going to be among the longest chapters of the story up to this point. After all, I had a lot of stuff I wanted to include in it.
> 
> Once again, I have to give credit to Malthus1 on Reddit for both the suggestion of having Star finding baby items when she went inside of her wand, and the idea that Naysaya had a bit of a caveat that prevented him from just telling everyone that Star and Marco had slept together when she went through mewberty (though he couldn't say anything about the baby, since obviously if Marco doesn't know, Naysaya doesn't know). 
> 
> After all, considering why Tom put the curse on Marco in the first place, it wouldn't exactly help him if there was a chance that Star would get embarrassed by association from one of the secrets/insecurities Naysaya told everyone. Especially since he'd probably realize it wouldn't take her long to figure out he was responsible.
> 
> And now Star is starting to become all-too-aware of just how fast the metaphorical clock in counting down. Also, yeah, her being upset with Marco for not seeming to be worried about anything is pretty hypocritical of her, considering he's obviously not going to be concerned about the baby...because he doesn't know, due to her not telling him. But, well, Star isn't thinking rationally at that moment - that's pure emotion at work there, and logic has been locked in the trunk until she gets snapped back to her senses.
> 
> As a bit of a warning, the next chapter will probably take a bit longer. Not only do I want to take a tiny bit of a break from writing, but I'm probably going to be pretty busy over the next couple months, and I'm actually not going to have access to my computer for about 2 weeks fairly soon, meaning I won't even be able to write. I wouldn't call it a hiatus, but it'll probably be a bit of a longer gap between this chapter and the next, is all I'm saying.


	11. Chapter 11

It wasn’t too long after things had started to calm down following the fight with Ludo that Janna pulled out her cell phone and gave her mother a call. 

Star, still reeling a little from the loss of her spell book and her mentor, was only half-paying attention to what was being said. She was only able to catch that Janna was asking her mother to pick them up, and presumably telling her that Jackie and Marco would need a ride as well; after all, why make them go home on their own, if there was already going to be a car available. 

All that was left to do now was wait until Mrs. Ordonia arrived. 

In the meantime, Janna kept herself busy by undoing the summoning circle she had made, and picking up the different supplies she’d brought with her, tossing each item into the box as she found them. Star had started to help, but apparently wasn’t needed, as Janna dismissed her almost immediately. 

So, now she was just sitting on a stone bench that someone had built near Bon Bon’s burial site, trying her best to not think about everything that had happened…and being unable to do anything else. She did her best to ignore Jackie and Marco; thinking about losing the Book and Glossaryck already made her feel horrible, she didn’t need to add to that feeling. 

Well, if she were being totally honest, she’d have to admit that she was mostly ignoring Jackie – and even then, not completely, since she would respond whenever the skater girl said something to her. Marco was a little harder to even try to ignore, considering he had taken a seat next to her, and had chosen to place a hand on her shoulder, obviously hoping to bring her some comfort. 

It did help; it didn’t make the bad feelings she was experiencing go away, but she did receive some comfort form the gesture. 

Honestly, just sitting with her friend made her feel a little better, so that alone made the whole thing that much more bearable.

Still, she couldn’t get her mind off of the Book and Glossaryck; and what Ludo could be doing with them. She wasn’t going to try and claim that she had been super close to her mentor, but that didn’t mean she ever wanted him gone. And she definitely didn’t want anything bad to happen to him. 

So, as the car pulled up to take the teenagers back home, Star began to form an idea in her head, and the rough semblance of a plan. It was too late to put it into action tonight – mostly because she needed Buff Frog’s help, and she had a feeling he’d either be putting his tadpoles to sleep or going to bed himself – but she knew what she’d be doing, first thing in the morning. She was going to find Ludo, and get back what he’d stolen from her; no matter what it took. 

The car ride was silent – and a little cramped, considering Star, Marco, and Jackie had all squeezed into the backseat, while Janna elected to sit in front with her mother, holding the box of supplies on her lap. 

Not that the princess was going to complain. Right now, she wasn’t really in the mood to talk; she just wanted to get home and get to bed, so she could get up as early as possible, and put her rescue plan into action. 

It wasn’t until they had arrived at the Diazes’ house, that she said anything. 

“…You’re not going to take Jackie home?” Star asked before she could stop herself. She hadn’t meant to say anything, but apparently her mind was slipperier than she thought; it felt like it literally just slid right out. 

Still, now that she had asked the question, it was too late to take it back. And so she waited for an answer…which took a little longer than she would have expected. 

“No, I think that after all the stuff that went down tonight, she’d rather get to relax than have to walk home,” Marco explained. He paused for a moment, before looking at his friend and adding, “Besides, I wanted to make sure you were okay. You…” 

He trailed off there, seeming unsure of how he should continue – or possibly unsure if he even wanted to continue with whatever he was going to say. 

“I’m fine,” Star said suddenly, cutting Marco off before he had a chance to say anything more. “I’m just…really tired, that’s all. You mind if I just go to bed?” 

Hesitatingly ever so slightly – so briefly that the girl wasn’t even entirely sure if he’d hesitated at all – Marco shook his head in response to the question. 

With that done, Star quickly went up the stairs, pausing about halfway up when she heard Marco calling to her. 

“Goodnight,” she called back, before continuing up to the second level and into her bedroom. 

Once inside, she sat heavily on her bed, before allowing herself to just fall back onto the mattress. 

She sighed, letting out a breath that she hadn’t even been aware she had been holding. While she had mostly said she was tired as an excuse to avoid Marco’s questions until the morning (and so she could get up earlier, to put her plan to get back what was stolen from her into action as soon as possible), now that she was actually in bed, she was made painfully aware just how tired she really was. 

Both physically and especially emotionally, she was just…exhausted. Her thoughts were still swirling around in her head, but she did her best to calm them. She couldn’t deal with that stuff right now; she just…wanted to get some sleep. 

Without even bothering to change into her nightgown, Star got out of bed only long enough to lift up the blanket so she could crawl underneath it. She was just starting to get comfortable enough to actually fall asleep, when suddenly…

”Seriously? Now?” she groaned, being careful to keep her voice low. She didn’t think Marco or his parents (if they were even home or awake) would be listening, but she figured it wouldn’t hurt to be cautious about this. 

As though in response, she felt another nudge against her stomach, just slightly below her belly button. Star couldn’t help but let out a frustrated groan at the feeling. All she wanted to do was get some sleep…

Star lowered her voice even more as she said, “C’mon, baby, it’s bedtime. Just, please, go to sleep.” 

When she got only a series of kicks in response, she let out a sigh and rolled onto her side. Apparently she was going to have to put off going to sleep for a little longer. 

Star began to rub her stomach gently, hoping that would do the same thing as before, and calm the baby, at least enough that she’d stop moving quite so much. Thankfully, it seemed to work, as almost as soon as she started rubbing her stomach, she felt the kicks start to slow down and happen less frequently. 

After a few moments of not feeling anything, Star cautiously lifted her hand off of her stomach. She held her breath for a moment, waiting to see if she’d get any response; and when she didn’t feel anything, she couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief. 

“Okay,” she whispered to herself as she made herself a little more comfortable. “Time for both of us to get some sleep.”

She closed her eyes and slowly, but surely, drifted off to sleep, albeit a somewhat fitful one at first, as her tired mind kept warping her already tumultuous thoughts into a storm of fragmented dreams. 

Despite this, she was eventually able to get her mind to settle, and fall into a deep sleep.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Star was up bright and early the next morning; considering how quiet the house was, she had a feeling she had gotten up earlier than Marco – a very rare occurrence in the Diaz household, considering how much of an early bird the boy tended to be. 

Under normal circumstances, the princess would have felt a bit of pride in this accomplishment. However, these were not normal circumstances, and she had much more important things to think about right now. 

She quickly got out of bed and was about to start preparing, when she suddenly became aware of just how disheveled she really was. 

For a moment or two, Star thought about what she could do about her current state. She briefly considered just going as she was; after all, the quicker she left the house, the sooner she’d be able to find Ludo and get Glossaryck and her Book of Spells back from the little thieving monster. 

However, a very brief and careful sniff of herself made the princess decide that probably wasn’t the best idea. 

“Guess a quick shower won’t hurt…” she said in a low voice, heading towards the bathroom. 

Once inside, she made sure to shut the door behind her and pulled off her dirty clothes, throwing most of the outfit into the hamper, while placing her headband – which she had also neglected to remove before going to bed the previous night – on the counter by the sink. After she was completely undressed, she stepped into the shower and turned on the water. 

Though, maybe it would have been better to turn on the water first, considering the first sensation she felt after turning the knob was nearly ice-cold water hitting her skin. 

Star couldn’t help but yelp a little from the shock of the cold, but it didn’t take long for the temperature to adjust and she was left standing in a spray of steamy water. As she felt the heat start to loosen up some of the tension in her body, Star let out a sigh of relief. 

She had to admit – this did make her feel a lot better; though she was still determined to go out and try to track down Ludo as soon as she was done with the shower and finished getting dressed. No matter how much she had to admit to enjoying the shower, she also knew that it was important to get her plan done as quickly as she could.

As she lathered up her favorite cotton candy-scented body wash, the princess felt a soft rumbling in her stomach; not exactly surprising, considering the last time she’d eaten anything was before she and Janna had gone to the cemetery. Still, she did her best to ignore it. 

“I’ll eat when I get back,” she promised herself as she continued to wash herself off. 

She couldn’t help but flinch slightly at a sudden hard jab from inside her belly, coupled with her stomach growling again, much louder this time. Then she got over the minor shock and let out a small growl of her own. 

“I’ll get you something to eat as soon as we get Glossaryck back, I promise,” she said softly, placing her hand on her stomach as she addressed her unborn daughter. “Just try and be patient, please. It won’t take long.” 

There was a voice in t he back of her mind that couldn’t help but point out the irony of the situation – that she of all people was asking someone else to be patient; she chose to ignore that voice completely. 

What was harder to ignore was the series of kicks that assaulted the inside of her stomach, seemingly in response to her earlier request. That obviously gave her an answer, though definitely not the one she was hoping for. 

“Okay, okay, you win – breakfast first, then rescue,” she finally muttered, letting out a sigh of defeat. Despite herself, Star couldn’t help but smile a little as she felt an appreciative squirm under her palm. 

Now that the whole situation was more or less settled, she returned her focus to the shower. 

Star finished washing her body, rinsing off the suds before moving onto her hair, using a special combination of shampoo and conditioner to help her save a little more time. After all, she had to get this done as quickly as she could, especially considering she also had to take the time it’d take her to eat into account; and every moment mattered right now. 

She soon finished her shower, turning off the water and wrapping a towel around her body to cover herself before stepping through the door that connected her bedroom to the bathroom. 

Never before had she been so thankful for the rare moment of foresight that had led to her deciding to magically create that particular door when she’d first summoned her tower bedroom all those months ago. It really did make things easier when she was in a hurry. 

Not wanting to waste any more time than she had to, Star quickly pulled her wand out from underneath her pillow and did a quick spell to dry her off, as well as dress her. 

Thankfully, the spell went how she wanted, without any surprises; her bursts, while they did still happen, had seemed to have become a lot less frequent since she’d gone into her wand and taken out Toffee’s finger. 

Her stomach growled again, snapping the princess out of her thoughts. 

“Right – breakfast,” she said to herself as she headed out the door. She stole a glance at the clock on the wall as she walked down the hall and to the stairs – it was a little before eight o’clock, if she was reading it correctly. 

It took a lot of willpower to keep herself from pausing to double check on that; she had thought she’d gotten up much, much earlier than that, and her shower couldn’t have taken that long, could it? 

Her stomach growled again, even louder this time, obviously a reminder that she still had to eat something, regardless of how much she just wanted to go – especially now that she’d realized it wasn’t as early as she’d originally assumed. Star couldn’t help but let out a frustrated groan in response. 

“Okay, okay, I’ll get us something to eat,” she muttered, unable to keep herself from sounding like a little frustrated, “Just wait like five minutes, will you?” 

“Who are you talking to?” 

Normally she wouldn’t have had much of a reaction to such a simple question, but in her defense, she had thought she was the only one awake, and she hadn’t noticed anything that would indicate that she was no longer alone in that regard. So, when she heard a voice coming from behind her, the princess instinctively gripped the handle of her wand tightly, ready to attack and defend herself if the need arose.

However, it only took about a moment for her to recognize the voice, and her grip loosened considerably; though she still held onto the wand – and the crystal did still glow faintly for a few moments longer, thankfully without actually summoning or casting any accidental spells. 

Star was relieved that she hadn’t cast any damaging – or even just loud – spells, whether intentionally or by accident. But, at the same time, she was kind of embarrassed that she’d almost done just that. 

“Uh, no one,” she said after the briefest moment of thought, turning around to face Marco, who was standing behind her with a slightly confused look on his face. Not that she could really blame him for looking like that. After all, if she had come out of her room and saw him just talking out loud to nobody, she’d probably be just as confused. 

For a moment, she wondered – and worried – if he was going to try and press her for more information; he didn’t quite seem convinced by her answer. To her relief, he didn’t say anything more about it.

Instead, he just asked, “What are you doing up so early? You know it’s Saturday, right?” 

Again, she really couldn’t blame him for seeming confused. It was normally hard enough for her to get up early on the days when they _had_ school, and under normal circumstances, she probably would love to just stay in bed for at least another hour on the weekend. 

Thankfully, this time, she already had an answer to his question. 

“I need to go and rescue Glossaryck from Ludo,” she told him simply, feeling no need to beat around the bush with her intentions. Just then, she felt an impatient squirm inside of her belly, accompanied by her stomach growling yet again – apparently loud enough for Marco to hear, considering he was clearly trying to pretend like he hadn’t heard anything. 

“…And I’m kinda hungry,” she added, sounding just a little embarrassed as she felt her cheeks start to heat up from the blood that had rushed to them seconds before. 

“Well, what do you want?” Marco asked, stepping forward. 

The princess was ready to protest, to insist that he didn’t have to bother, and should just go back to bed; but for some reason, she changed her mind. Instead, she considered his question – did she want something specific, or was she just hungry? 

She couldn’t think of anything she particularly wanted – at least, not at the moment – so she was reasonably sure that she just wanted something to eat, whatever it was. Which she was thankful for, since that meant she could eat pretty much anything, and her hunger would be satisfied. 

So, she decided to go with what she was pretty sure would be the fastest option for breakfast. 

“I was actually just gonna grab a couple toaster pastries,” she said, starting to head down the stairs, only to pause when Marco called her name. She turned back to her friend, silently questioning his reason for calling her. 

“Star, we don’t have anymore of those,” Marco said, receiving another questioning looking from the Mewnian princess. “Apparently my dad accidentally left the box on the table when he decided to have one as a snack, and the puppies got into them.” 

Ah, well that explained it – when the laser puppies got into food, there was pretty much no chance of anything being left behind.

Still, Star couldn’t help but groan softly at this reveal; was the universe just conspiring against her to keep her from getting back what was stolen from her as quickly as possible? It definitely felt that way…

”Well…” she began, trying to think of what else would work as a quick, but still satisfying, breakfast. “Do we have any cereal?” 

To her immense relief, Marco confirmed that they did, in fact, have cereal in the cabinets. That was all Star needed to hear. 

The moment she had confirmation that what she wanted was available, she practically flew down the rest of the stair and raced into the kitchen to get her breakfast. 

She quickly pulled out a bowl, spoon, and got the milk out of the fridge, before reaching into the cabinet and pulling out the first box of cereal she put her hands not, not even bothering to look to see what it was she was grabbing. 

In fact, she didn’t pay the slightest bit of attention to what she had chosen to eat, until a few minutes later, when she was finally able to take a bite – and she had to force herself to swallow what was in her mouth, rather than spit it back onto her spoon. 

“Seriously?” she asked no one in particular as she finally looked at the box of cereal. 

Apparently, in her rush to just grab something to eat, she’d accidentally grabbed some kind of bran cereal with raisins mixed into it – a brand she’d never even considered trying, considering it just sounded like something she would despise. And, it seemed like she was right in that assumption…but time was of the essence, so it wasn’t like she could just toss out the bowl she’d poured (or, more accurately, give it to the laser puppies, since they’d literally eat anything that could be classified as even semi-edible), and get something more appetizing. 

So, even as she internally shuddered at the taste, she continued to eat her cereal. 

“…Do you even know where Ludo went?” Marco’s hesitant-sounding voice entered the room, accompanied by the slightly muffled sound of his sneakers on the floor – apparently he’d gotten dressed for the day in the few minutes between now and when they’d last spoken. 

Star shook her head, without looking up from her bowl of cereal, which was now a little more than half-full; she’d be eating rather quickly, after all. 

“No,” she confessed, after forcing herself to swallow another mouthful of her breakfast. “But I think Buff Frog might know something. I’m gonna go ask him as soon as I’m done eating.” 

“You sure that’s such a good idea?” Marco’s question caused Star to pause, her spoon dangling over the bowl of cereal, waiting for her to put it into her mouth. 

She gave him a questioning look, silently asking what he was getting at. 

“Well, it’s still pretty early, and I’m guessing it’s early on Mewni too, right?” Marco began, pausing for a moment to allow Star to either confirm or deny his assumption. When the princess nodded to confirm that, yes, it was also fairly early in the morning on Mewni, he continued. 

“And, obviously, I’m not a dad,” he said – and Star couldn’t help but wince a little, though whether it was because of what he’d said, or the surprisingly hard jab to the ribs she’d just received, she wasn’t exactly sure. “But I don’t think waking up a guy who’s a single parent to twelve babies this early in the morning is the best idea.” 

Taking another bite of her cereal, Star thought about what her best friend had just said. 

In all honesty, she hadn’t even considered that. She had been so concerned with just finding Ludo, and getting back the Book of Spells and Glossaryck from him, that the idea that the people who might be able to actually help her do that…could need to get some rest themselves. 

It was at that moment that she had to recognize that Marco had a good point; Buff Frog probably would still be pretty tired, and he undoubtedly deserved a rest. 

“…I’ll ask him later – but I don’t want to wait too long,” she finally said after considering the situation for a moment or two, adding on the last part almost without thinking. She didn’t want to bother Buff Frog too much, but that didn’t mean she also didn’t want to get her current goal completed as soon as possible; every second counted in a time like this. 

Marco didn’t say anything, but still nodded in apparent agreement to what she had just said. 

With that taken care of, Star turned her attention back to her breakfast. Despite no longer having to eat super quickly, she still continued to devour the cereal as fast as she could, despite the fact that each bite was a bit of a chore – not helped at all by the fact that the flakes of cereal did not hold up well in milk, and were now basically bland-tasting mush. 

A while ago, she would have just dumped out what was left in the bowl, or given it to someone else who might actually want to eat it. 

However, given her condition, she figured that leaving any food that she could eat without feeling nauseous, even if she didn’t particularly enjoy the taste, was not the best idea. Not to mention that she still kind of needed to kill time until it was a reasonable time to ask Buff Frog for his help in locating wherever Ludo was currently hiding. 

So she – somewhat reluctantly – finished her breakfast, occasionally pausing to look at her wand, which she used to display a magical image of a clock; so she could keep track of the time. Finally, she was done eating, and she took another look at the magical clock. 

To her frustration – and despite how she’d deliberately taken her time with eating the last half-bowl of cereal – she found that it wasn’t even nine in the morning yet. It was fairly close, but not close enough in her opinion; and it was also probably still just a little too early to bother Buff Frog. Which meant she was back to having to figure out what she was supposed to do until enough time had actually passed. 

Star racked her mind, desperately searching for some idea of what to do. 

She needed a way to pass the time that she had left before she could go see Buff Frog, but at the same time, she didn’t want to just waste time doing something frivolous. Not only did it seem kind of wrong to try and have fun while Glossaryck was in Ludo’s clutches, but even ignoring that, she had the sneaking suspicion that trying to keep her mind off the issue, if only for the time that she had to wait, was just going to make her think about it more. And that would just make the time pass even slower; something she really did not want to have to deal with at the moment. 

Suddenly, she thought of something – something that would help her pass the time she had to wait, and also actually help her with the upcoming mission. 

“I have to pack,” she announced, pushing away from the table as she stood up. 

Star knew she didn’t necessarily have to say anything, but for some reason, saying her plan aloud almost seemed like it helped to reassure her that it was something she wanted to do. 

As she went to drop her bowl into the sink, she heard Marco ask, “You want any help with that?” 

For a split second, the princess was confused, wondering why he’d think she needed any help putting a bowl into the sink – something she had done, and he’d seen her do, about a trillion times by this point. When her brain finally caught up and she realized what he was actually referring to, she couldn’t help but blush a little from the slight embarrassment she felt at having misunderstood what Marco meant. 

“No, thanks,” she said, taking a moment to look back at her friend before she started to head back to the stairway. “I can take care of it.”

Despite her assurance, she was well aware that Marco continued to follow her as she went upstairs and towards her bedroom. 

Normally, she would have protested this behavior, at least a little. But, right now, she actually didn’t mind it all that much; in fact, there was a part of her that kind of appreciated the fact that he apparently cared so much. 

Star was getting her biggest backpack – she was planning on packing a lot, and didn’t want to have to waste time possibly having to unpack any of her smaller backpacks in order to move the stuff into a larger one – when a familiar-sounding song filled the air. 

Marco muttered an apology as he took his cell phone out of his pocket and pressed the button to answer the call. 

Despite still being worried about Glossaryck, Star could help but smile a little when she heard Marco’s ringtone going off. It seemed like the Buff Babies weren’t the only ones who really loved the song, if the squirming she’d felt was any indication. 

“Who is it?” she asked Marco, who was currently holding the phone up to his ear. 

Her joy faded somewhat when she got her answer, in the form of her friend addressing the person who’d called him: “Hey, Jackie.” 

All of a sudden, the feelings from the night before came back, and Star was eager to do whatever she could to get rid of them. 

Thankfully, she already had something in mind. 

She tuned out Marco’s voice as best as she could – though she did still hear snippets of his conversation with Jackie – and went throughout her room, searching for anything that looked like it could be useful for her upcoming mission. She even looked inside her Secrets’ Closet for a bit, being careful to avoid the tangled mass of hair as she walked around. 

At one point, she spotted Toffee’s finger, still just lying on the floor where she’d tossed if after getting it out of her wand. Suppressing a shudder, the princess kicked the finger away, letting it land who-knows-where before continuing to search.

“No…no…definitely not that one…maybe?” Star muttered to herself as she searched through the item in her closet, tossing away each thing she saw that she determined would be useless in what she wanted to do, and taking an extra second to examine something she thought she possibly be good to take along with her. 

After a few moments of looking, she found several objects that she was sure would be very helpful; as she carried them out (using magic, since the objects were fairly weighty, especially combined), she briefly wondered why she’d tossed them into her Secrets’ Closet, where they’d normally be forgotten. 

Star exited the closet and made sure to shut and lock the door behind her before stuffing her scavenged objects inside the backpack. And that was what she continued to do for the next…however long it was – she actually started to lose track of how much time passed, she was so focused on what she was doing that she stopped being aware of pretty much anything that didn’t involve her packing.

It was only when she felt that she was sufficiently prepared that she allowed herself to be aware of what was happening around her. 

And the first thing she heard was Marco’s voice, saying, “Star, I understand that this is a really stressful situation for you, but I think you might be going just a little overboard with the packing.” 

The princess gave a brief noise of protest to this statement; otherwise she continued to just focus on her packing, grunting in effort as she forced another item into the already stuffed backpack. 

“Maybe you should try doing some breathing exercises?” Marco suggested as Star finally finished packing and struggled to pull the zipper closed. “It might help you feel better.” 

“I don’t have time to breathe,” Star insisted as she finally managed to get the bulging bag closed. She climbed over the top to get to the side with the straps, which she pulled onto her shoulders – and ended up falling backwards as soon as she put on the pack; even with her above average strength, the full backpack was difficult to lift. 

She managed to get herself upright again…only to fall over once more about ten seconds later, this time landing with the backpack on top of her, causing her to be squished against the floor. She heard Marco offer to help her up, and despite knowing he probably couldn’t see it, she shook her head. 

“No,” she said, her voice muffled due to her face being squished by the backpack. Star pulled out her wand as she added, “I am a strong, independent, warrior princess.” 

With that said, she gripped the handled of her wand tightly, firing off a simple energy blast to help propel her from the ground and back into a standing position. Once she was back on her feet, the princess shrugged off the pack – it’d probably be best to leave it until it was time to go see Buff Frog, now that she thought more about it. 

She thought she heard Marco sigh, but chose to ignore it, focusing instead on rolling her shoulders to help relieve the slight pain that had started to form deep within them – and help prepare them for the weight they’d have to bare soon. 

“If you’re going to go through with this, you have to at least call your mom,” she heard Marco say. “Someone’s gotta tell her what happened.” 

All of a sudden, Star felt sick to her stomach; and she was pretty sure it had nothing to do with morning sickness this time. 

Looking over to see her friend opening up the curtain the covered her mirror, the princess let out a panicked noise that was something between a gasp and a cry. She darted over, rushing to stop him before he could press the button to send out a call to Butterfly Castle. 

“We cannot tell my mother – she would freak out so bad if she finds out I lost the Book, and Glossaryck,” she explained as she stepped in between Marco – who had to jerk to a stop, lest he accidently give her a poke – and the mirror. 

There was a part of her that had to acknowledge that Marco did have a point; her mother should be told about what had happened to both the Magic Book of Spells, and the little blue man that lived within its pages. But, she also had a very good reason to keep her mother from finding out about what had happened. 

The most likely punishment for her failure to protect the chronicles of her family history and spells would be being forced to return to Mewni - since St. Olga’s Reform School for Wayward Princesses was no longer an option, assuming Pony Head’s description of what the place had become was true. 

And while she’d been able to avoid raising too much suspicion when she’d interacted with her parents up to this point, the princess had no doubt that if she had to go back home, it’d only be a matter of time until her parents found out she was pregnant. 

She knew what would happen to her baby when the truth was revealed; she had already lost so much, she couldn’t bear the idea of losing her, too. So, she had to avoid her mother finding out about what had happened, by any means necessary. 

“If you say so…” Marco said, though it was clear from both his voice and his face that he thought she was making a mistake. 

“Anyway,” Star began, choosing to ignore the way her friend sounded, in favor of once again pulling on the massive backpack, “This is my mess, so I have to be the one that cleans it up.” 

She forced herself to remain upright (despite the weight of the backpack trying to pull her backwards) as she pulled out her dimensional scissors. Cutting open the portal, she thought about Buff Frog’s house in the swampy part of the Forest of Certain death; normally she’d open up the portal into the swamp, but they couldn’t waste any more time than they already had. 

“You sure you don’t want to leave some of that stuff behind?” Marco suggested, much to Star’s frustration. 

Holding on tightly to the straps of the backpack, not even looking at her friend, the princess replied, “No, I need all of it. It’s very important.” 

Without another word from either of them, she stepped through the portal to Buff Frog’s home, with Marco presumably coming in right behind her. As the princess stepped through the exit portal, she found herself losing her balance and pitching forward, slamming onto the ground with her pack landing on top of her. 

She was vaguely aware of Marco saying something, as well as the sound of croaking surrounding her, but chose to ignore them both. There were much more important things to worry about right now, after all. 

“Buff Frog, I need your help,” Star began, pushing herself off of the ground with some effort. “I think Ludo’s up to something, and I need your help to figure out where he’s hiding.” 

To her surprise, Buff Frog didn’t seem at all shocked to hear that his former boss was still around, despite the explosion at the castle all those months ago. Instead, he just nodded, a slightly confused look on his face. 

“I know – that is why I sent you all those letters,” he explained, gesturing to a small table where some scraps of paper and a few crayons were laid about. 

For a moment, Star was confused; then she remembered finding some pieces of paper with scribbles and drawings on them scattered around the yard a while ago. 

“You mean these?” she asked, pulling out a couple of the papers that she’d crammed into the pocket of her dress (just in case), and showing them to Buff Frog, who nodded. “We thought your babies were sending us fan art or something. I had no idea it was about Ludo…” 

Now that she knew what the notes actually meant, she couldn’t help but feel even worse than before. If she had realized what they meant, would that have kept Ludo from taking away the Book and Glossaryck? 

“It’s not like anyone can blame you for not understanding what the notes meant, Star,” Marco said, placing his hand on her shoulder – a gesture that briefly pulled the girl out of her thoughts. “I mean, who writes warning notes in crayon?” 

“Sorry I not go to fancy school for writing,” Buff Frog replied, pouting slightly. Out of the corner of her eye, Star saw Marco wince a little at the frog-man’s comment. Apparently he hadn’t meant for his observation on the state of the letters to be taken that way, or else he realized that maybe he shouldn’t have said anything in the first place. 

Whichever it was, it didn’t matter right now; what mattered was finding out where Ludo was hiding, and where he’d taken what he’d stolen from her. She had to get back to business, before anything else came up that would take up any more of her rescue time. 

“Can you tell us where Ludo is?” she asked Buff Frog, not even bothering to try and hide the desperation in her voice. 

To her immense relief, Buff Frog nodded and began to draw out a map, explaining what he meant to the teens as they watched him draw. 

Once he was done, Star thanked the monster for his help and attempted to stuff the map into the backpack – which turned out to be rather difficult, considering she was still wearing it, and the opening was out of her reach. She leaned back slightly, hoping to extend her reach, but instead found herself falling backwards; though this time, she was caught by Buff Frog before she could actually hit the ground. 

Feeling a little embarrassed, she chuckled slightly before saying, “Thank you.” 

Buff Frog just nodded, then eyed her backpack with a thoughtful look. Finally, he lifted the bag – along with the princess – and started to shake it, saying, “Do not need big bag.” 

It didn’t take long for Star to fall out of the straps of the backpack, much to her irritation. She was about to say something in protest, only to stop when Buff Frog gestured to her wand and said that was all she needed to go up against Ludo. 

Star was unsure of that – the last time she tried to take on Ludo with just her wand, she nearly got sucked into the Void. But, she had to admit that Buff Frog did probably know Ludo better than she did, so if he said she just needed the wand, then she figured it was probably safe to believe him. 

“I’ll be back in a bit for that stuff,” she said, motioning to the backpack, which was now being examined by the tadpoles. With that done, she grabbed Marco by the wrist and pulled out her scissors once more, taking a moment to look at the map Buff Frog had just drawn them before cutting the portal. 

The two friends stepped through the portal, and when they came through the other side, they found themselves on the edge of a dark forest, with a huge field of crops before them – and in the distance, the opening of a cave; just like Buff Frog had described. 

“…Ready?” Star asked, looking over to her best friend, who only nodded in response. 

That was all she needed to see. Without another word, the princess silently summoned a warnicorn – one large enough for the two of them to ride – and jumped on, pulling the Earth boy along with her. As soon as they were on the creature’s back, she gave its sides a quick tap with her boots to help urge it on; and the warnicorn immediately responded. 

The warnicorn reared up briefly, clawing at the air with its front hooves as he let out a fearsome whinny, before starting to race towards the opening of the cave, hooves thundering against the ground as it ran. 

As they approached the mouth of the cave, Star leaned over to look around the head of the warnicorn, pulling out her wand to blast one of the monsters that guarded the entrance. The other just remained standing at their post, doing nothing as the magical creature and the teenagers charged past them. 

Star wasn’t too concerned with that; she just cared about finding the Book and Glossaryck. 

Within seconds, they found themselves standing next to a massive grinder, something Buff Frog had briefly described to them while drawing out the map. 

Having no more need for the creature, Star vanished away the warnicorn, causing it to disappear with a cloud of pink sparkly smoke. She then fired up at the ceiling, blasting off a piece of metal for the two of them to use as a sort of sled. 

“C’mon, Marco,” was all she said to her friend as she leapt onto the falling piece of debris, taking him along with her. 

Marco went to wrap his arms around her waist, but she gently nudged his arms up a little, closer to her chest than her stomach. The boy may have said something in response to the action, but if he did, the Mewnian princess wasn’t paying enough attention to hear what it was. 

Not that it really matter in the long run, considering it took them literally seconds to reach the bottom of the hole, where they found a bunch of unfamiliar monsters – apparently Ludo had been doing some recruiting since the destruction of his castle. 

She started blasting the monsters, who were apparently too surprised by the sudden appearance of the teens to even try and fight back. 

Once they were all on the ground, most of them either knocked out or in a daze, Star looked around for any sign of either Ludo, or her Book of Spells. When she didn’t see a hint of either, she picked up one of the monsters by the shirt and coldly questioned, “Where is Ludo?”

The monster she’d questioned was still a little out of it from the spell he’d been hit with, so his response was a little slurred. 

However, he seemed more confused than scared by the question, even as it seemed like he was becoming more aware of what he’d been asked. A feeling that was soon shared by Star as she heard an unfamiliar voice say, “We gotta make a chore-chart or something, okay. That shower is totally groady.”

Looking away from the monster she’d been interrogating, the princess saw an elephant-like monster wearing nothing but a bath towel and looking very confused as he looked at his fellow monsters on the ground and the princess of Mewni and her friend standing over them. 

“Okay,” Star began, releasing her hold on the monster. “What’s going on here? Why aren’t you trying to kill us?” 

Sure, she’d learned from experience that not all monsters were necessarily bad, but considering how many warnings Buff Frog had sent her, she had kind of assumed that these were the kind of monsters she should be worried about. But, even after her and Marco had attacked them, the monsters seemed just mildly annoyed at worst, with a majority of them not seeming to be bothered at all; and that was really messing with her mind right now. 

“We’re not really fighting monsters,” explained one bird-like monster as she pulled herself up to a sitting position. “We’re alternative monsters.” 

Not quite convinced, Star demanded to know why there so many weapons lying around the place, if these monsters supposedly didn’t like to fight. Another monster just shrugged in response, picking up a spear from the ground and walking towards Marco. 

Instinctively, Star clutched her wand tightly, ready to blast the monster if he made even the slightest suggestion that he was going to try and hurt her friend. 

“These were here when we moved in. Figured the guy who owned the place left them behind when he moved out,” he said with a grin. “They’re great for tearing fashionable holes in clothes, so we kinda dig ‘em.” 

As though to help emphasize the point, the monster pulled on Marco’s hoodie, before using the tip of the tear to rip a hole in the fabric. Marco let out an annoyed sound at his clothing behind torn up, but otherwise seemed fine, so Star put her wand away…for now. She also felt her heart sink a little at hearing that the old owner of the cave – presumably Ludo – had left, likely some time ago. 

That meant that the only real lead they had to find out where he’d taken the Book and Glossaryck was a dead end; and now they were back to square one.

“Okay, we did what we could on our own. Now I think we can both agree that we should call your mom and –“ 

Before Marco could finish what he was going to say, Star whipped around to face him, practically snarling as she responded, “Marco, for the last time, I am not going to call my mom!” 

The boy held up his hands defensively, only lowering them when the princess calmed down a little. 

“Star, you need to calm down,” he said, keeping his own tone calm, as thought trying to act as an example. “I don’t think you’re really seeing the situation clearly.” 

That sparked something in Star’s memory, and her eyes flew open with realization. How could she have been so dumb? She didn’t need to get a map or come all the way to this cave to find what she was looking for! She already had what she needed – her wand. 

“That’s it!” she exclaimed excitedly, pulling out her wand once more. “I’ll use the spying spell!” 

“Since when do you know a spying spell?” Marco questioned, sounding genuinely confused…and for good reason. 

Star felt her blood run cold for a moment, remembering the circumstances of the first time she’d used the spell; and more specifically, how Marco had been involved.

“…Since I learned it a while ago,” she told him, trying to focus on the half-lie, rather than the squirming feeling in her stomach. “You weren’t there.” 

Seeing that her friend didn’t quite seem to believe what she was telling him, she decided to just add to the little white-lie, proclaiming that she had to do the spell alone as she pushed him through a nearby door, shutting it behind him. She didn’t really need to be alone, but considering how her friend was connected to the last time she’d used the spell, she wasn’t sure she wanted him around to watch her use it again. 

Now just came the whole thing of actually remembering how to do the spell…It wasn’t a hard spell, from what she could remember, but it wasn’t like she could remember exactly what it said, after having only read the incantation once. 

Taking a deep breath, Star held up her wand and attempted to perform the spell. It took a few tries, due to a combination of both her having some difficulties remembering the words she was supposed to say, and a brief magic burst that resulted in her wand firing off little eyeballs with spider-like legs instead of what she actually wanted to happen. 

But, finally, she managed to get the crystal to fire off the beam that led to the portal. Unfortunately, it didn’t show Glossaryck, or even Ludo; apparently she had to do some of the work herself…

”No. No. No. Definitely not. No.” she said to herself as she changed the direction she was facing, which also seemed to change what the All-Seeing Eye was able to see. The problem was that it never showed her what she actually wanted to see, no matter where she tried to look. 

She turned slightly…only to see Marco, peeking out of the same door she’d sent him through when she’d decided to try the spell. 

“Marco!” she cried, looking over her shoulder to glare at her friend. He looked slightly ashamed at having been caught watching her, and quickly apologized before once again shutting the door. 

Star sighed and rubbed her temple with one hand, keeping her wand firmly grasped in the other. Just trying to look around randomly obviously wasn’t going to help her; she needed to focus on what exactly she wanted to find. 

“Gotta find Glossaryck,” she muttered to herself, once again grasping the handle of her wand with both hands. 

All of a sudden, the portal seemed to briefly close, before opening again to show what looked a bit like a cell. That was confusing enough, but then Star heard what sounded like a combination of snoring and chirping. Moving her hand slightly to get a better view, she almost jumped a little when she saw a giant eagle and spider. 

Once she got over the initial shock, she felt herself growing excited as she was hit with a sense of recognition – those were the same bird and spider that had helped Ludo; she was sure of it! And if they were there, then that had to mean…

Star moved over a little more, listening and looking closely for any sign of her mentor. 

Finally, she spotted him, sitting on what she was pretty sure was the Book, lying open on the floor of the cell he was in. 

“Glossaryck!” Star cried, her tone a combination of elated and concerned as she realized that he was moaning softly. What had Ludo done to him to make him so upset? She had to get him out of there now and – 

“Is that pudding?” she questioned, raising an eyebrow slightly as the little blue man turned around to reveal he was smiling and literally drinking what looked like brown goop out of a container that was almost as big as him. 

“A whole tub of pudding,” Glossaryck confirmed, looking at tub like he’d just met his soulmate. 

Shaking her head slightly, Star decided to just get down to business; no more playing around. She asked Glossaryck where Ludo had taken him. If he could tell her that, then all she’d have to do is use her dimensional scissors to cut open a portal to where he was. It’d just take literally a minute, and she’d get the Book and Glossaryck back, without anyone ever needing to know she’d lost them.

Unfortunately, it seemed like her mentor was going to be as unhelpful as ever, even when she was trying to rescue him from the clutches of their enemy. Literally the only answer he gave to her question was that he was “On the ground”, and when she asked him to be more specific, he just added that he was in a cave.

Letting out a sigh of frustration, Star said, “Glossaryck, I don’t have time for this. Just come on.” 

She reached towards the portal, only for her hand to feel like it hit a wall as soon as she touched the image of Glossaryck eating his pudding. 

Pulling away her hand, the princess frowned in slight confusion, watching as her mentor wagged his finger at her. 

“The spying spell doesn’t work that way, Star,” he explained, turning his attention back to his tub of pudding. “You can look, but you can’t touch.” 

Star furrowed her brow slightly in thought when he said that. Despite what he had just said, she was sure she could reach through, if she only tried hard enough. Maybe if she could dip down again, just for a minute…

Her heart started pounding, and she swore she felt the baby starting to move around a little more in response to the rapid beating of her heart. 

She remembered all too well what had happened the last time she’d dipped down; it was quite possibly the scariest thing she’d gone through in her life. But, she had to get Glossaryck back, and this was the only way she could think of to do that. 

Swallowing the lump in her throat, she muttered, “Just for a second…” and closed her eyes, concentrating as hard as she could. 

As she did her best to focus her magic, Star once again placed her hand on the portal, doing her best to ignore the almost anxious squirms from inside her belly. 

Within seconds, she felt the strange tingling sensation in her cheeks and felt her hand burst through the portal her spell had created; it felt like jolts of electricity were coursing through her veins as she stretched as far as she could towards Glossaryck. He was just out of reach, no matter how much she tried to stretch.

“Glossaryck, just come on,” Star pleaded once she realized she wasn’t going to be able to reach any farther. 

She wasn’t sure how much longer she would be able to keep this up, but she knew it wouldn’t be for long. Her stomach felt a bit like someone had put it into a vice, and the baby was kicking like crazy; neither of which made her feel any better about the situation. 

“Sorry,” Glossaryck said, placing his pudding down beside him. “But I belong to the Book, and the Book belongs to Ludo now.” 

“Ludo-“ Star began, briefly pausing to wince as a particularly sharp pain cut through her, forcing her to inhale sharply before continuing with her protest. “Ludo stole you!”

The blue man just blinked and shrugged his shoulders. When he did actually say something, the only words out of his mouth were that what had happened was out of his hands. 

Star groaned softly; though whether it was out of frustration at his lack of cooperation or due to the pain she was feeling, she wasn’t exactly sure. 

“Glossaryck, please, just come back,” she begged, trying once more to reach him, despite knowing it wouldn’t do any good. “I thought…I thought we were friends.” 

“Friends?” Glossaryck replied, sounding like the word was something foreign to him. “Now, that’s such a simple concept…” 

Star felt her eyes fill with tears at this statement as she realized what he meant by saying that. Another pain cut through her, and she was unable to keep herself from crying out at the feeling. When she opened her eyes, she saw Glossaryck eying her as he scooped another handful of pudding into his mouth. 

“You’re really not looking so good. If I were you, I’d just let the portal close already,” he said simply, before turning his back to her. 

Unable to take the cramping – or the frantic kicking from the baby – any longer, Star ripped her hand out of the portal, which suddenly closed in a flash of light and a blast of wind – the latter of which knocked the princess to the ground. 

For a few seconds, she just stayed on the ground, breathing deeply in an attempt to both calm her racing heart and mitigate the pain in her stomach. 

Thankfully, it didn’t take long before she felt better…at least physically; and, most importantly, she could still feel the baby moving around. So, she was still okay, even if the sharp kick Star felt to her ribs made it painfully clear that she had not appreciated what had just happened. 

Star was so focused on trying to make herself feel better – and distracted by thinking of what Glossaryck had said moments before – that she had been completely unaware that Marco had entered the room, until she heard him ask, “Are you okay?” 

Wincing slightly as she stood, the princess nodded slightly in response; it wasn’t exactly the truth, but it wasn’t a complete lie either.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said with a sigh. “But…Glossaryck’s not going to be on the team for a while…Actually, I don’t know if he’s ever coming back.” 

Unlike her, Marco didn’t seem all the broken up at the news. Rather, he just stated that Glossaryck had never been much of a team-player. Which, was admittedly true, but it didn’t change the fact that hearing him say what he did about their being friends had stung more than anything else he’d ever said to her in the past. Not to mention her fears over what would happen when her mother found out that she’d lost him, along with all their family history and spells that were in the Book…

”I told you it was her – Star Butterfly!” 

The sound of the vaguely familiar voice caught the princess’s attention, and she turned to see the elephant monster walking towards her, followed closely by another monster, who looked a little like a bear. 

“We’re like your biggest fans.” 

Star raised an eyebrow in confusion as the two bowed before her. “Uh, I think you’re mixing me up with someone else,” she told them. “I’m not sure if you’ve realized this, but most monsters hate me. Kinda comes with the whole thing of fighting them, you know?” 

“Well, sure, it’s not exactly popular to like you,” the elephant monster admitted. “But we’re not about that.” 

The bear nodded in agreement, adding that Star was known as the “Rebel Princess.” 

Now that was surprising to learn; she never thought that she’d garnered that kind of reputation, especially among the monsters. As she thought about this revelation, she noticed that the two monster teens were looking at her with a hopeful gleam in her eyes. 

“Can you blast us with a spell or something?” the bear-like monster asked. “Just rip some awesome holes in our jeans or something.” 

“Yeah!” his companion exclaimed excitedly. “We want some proof to show off to our buds.” 

Star found herself smiling despite herself. 

“Well…” she began, lifting up her wand in preparation to perform a spell. “I guess I could cast something.” 

The monsters let out identical sounds of glee as the princess held up her wand a little higher. 

She was trying to think of a spell to use – nothing too bad, considering she didn’t want to really hurt them, of course – when she heard a faint humming from the bell of her wand. Before she could cancel it out, the crystal fired off a random spell; though, thankfully, it was just her Strawberry Shake Quake, so nothing too bad. 

And it seemed like the monsters were nothing but excited by the experience, as the moment they recovered from the slight shock of the blast, they excitedly pointed out the newly-done damage to their clothes. As the two of them ran off to tell the others about what had happened, Star felt herself feeling a little better; enough that she could at least smile a little, despite all that had happened. 

The good feeling faded slightly when Marco asked the one thing she was hoping he wouldn’t: “What are you gonna do now?”

Star took a deep breath as she thought about the question. 

Now that she knew she wasn’t going to be able to get Glossaryck back anytime soon, she had to admit to herself that it was only a matter of time before her parents found out that she’d lost him, along with the Magic Book of Spells. And, despite how scared she was of what would happen when they found out, she knew that it’d be at least marginally better if she told them herself, rather than just waiting until they found out some other way. 

“Now, I call Mom,” she said simply, taking another deep breath as she pulled out the scissors and cut a portal back to Buff Frog’s house – she still needed to get her stuff back. 

Once she’d retrieved her backpack – minus a few items that the Buff Babies had apparently decided would make good toys – she cut open another portal to send the two of them home.

To the surprise of the teens, it was nearly dusk when they returned to Earth, despite the fact that it hadn’t seemed like their mission had taken all that long. Realizing how late it was, Star suggested that they have something quick for dinner; partially because she was legitimately hungry, and partly because she did kind of want to delay telling her parents what had happened for just a little longer. 

Even though she was hoping that she could convince them to let her stay on Earth, she was still dreading what was going to happen when they found out just how badly she’d messed up this time. 

Marco agreed with the suggestion, and began to dig through the cabinets for something quick for the two of them to eat. 

“How’s this?” he asked, holding up a couple packages of microwave macaroni and cheese. 

Star briefly examined one of the packages before shrugging and saying it looked fine to her. Apparently figuring that was good enough, Marco cooked up one package – which he handed over to the Mewman girl – before cooking the other for himself. 

The packages weren’t big at all, so it didn’t take long before they were both done with their meals. 

Now came the moment of truth…Star swallowed as she started to head up the stairs, doing her best to prepare herself for whatever was going to happen when she told her parents about everything that had transpired. 

She was so lost in her own thoughts that she’d almost forgotten Marco was there as well, until she felt him take her hand. 

“You want me to come with you?” he asked. 

He didn’t have to explain what he meant; she already knew what he was offering. And right now, she didn’t think she’d ever been more grateful for anything in her life. 

Not quite trusting herself to speak, she just nodded and the two of them continued on to her bedroom. Once inside, Marco took a seat on the edge of Star’s bed, while the princess herself hesitantly approached the mirror on her wall. 

Taking a deep breath, and swallowing the lump that had managed to form in her throat, Star opened up the curtain that hid the mirror from view and said, “Call Mom.” 

As the mirror connected to the one at the palace, Star did her best to steel her nerves; or at the very least, hide just how terrified she was. 

“Star?” Queen Moon’s voice came as the image cleared up, showing her with her husband. She sounded quite surprised, and honestly for good reason. “What are you doing, calling so late?” 

Her tone and expression took on a concerned nature as she added, “Is everything alright?” 

For the briefest of moments, Star wanted to lie, and say that everything was fine…but, no, she had to tell them the truth. No matter how scared she was of how they’d react, she was certain that they’d be a million times angrier if she tried to keep it from them for any longer than she already had. 

“Actually…no, it’s not,” she admitted, looking down at the ground. She briefly glanced up to see how her parents looked now – both of them seemed fairly worried, which did not make her feel any better. 

However, she also knew they probably wanted to know exactly what had happened, and so she told them everything; well, everything about Ludo and how he’d stolen the Book and Glossaryck, anyway. 

When she was done, she looked back at her parents…who now had identical looks of horror on their faces. Seeing the looks on their faces made Star’s heart feel like it was sinking into her stomach, and she couldn’t help but start to cry a little as she began to just basically ramble and babble about how sorry she was for what had happened. 

But, to her surprise, her parents didn’t announce any kind of punishment; they didn’t even scold her. Far from it, actually. 

“Sweetheart…it’s alright,” her mother told her, in a more gentle tone than Star could remember ever hearing from her in quite a long time. 

“But, our family history…all the spells…I..I lost all of it,” she said, calming herself down from the sobbing she had just been doing. Despite being relieved that they didn’t seem to be planning on punishing her, she still couldn’t believe she was getting off so easily. 

Her father lifted his hand and shook his head, giving her what was obviously meant to be a reassuring smile. 

“That’s not important,” he told her. “It’s just a book, and a little magic man.” 

Queen Moon nodded in agreement at her husband’s words, turning her gaze back to her daughter as she added, “What matters most is that you’re safe.” 

“But…what do you want me to do now?” Star asked before she could stop herself. Even though her parents didn’t seem angry at her, she still worried that maybe they would still want her to come back to Mewni, for whatever reason. To her relief, her mother simply said that they didn’t want her to do anything specific. 

“Just sit back and let us handle things for now,” she told her daughter, who hesitated slightly before nodding. 

With that, the King and Queen wished their daughter a goodnight before ending the call, leaving Star gazing at her own reflection in the mirror. She watched as Marco’s reflection approached her own, the boy giving an almost cautious smile as he got closer. 

“Wow,” he said, “That went a lot better than I expected.” 

“Yeah…It really did,” Star replied, once she managed to find her voice. 

She still couldn’t believe that she hadn’t been punished in some way for her failure, especially considering how her parents (specifically her mother) had reacted in the past, when she didn’t even mess up half as badly as this time. 

Apparently picking up on the princess’s mood, her friend placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. 

When she looked at him, he repeated what her parents had told her: to not worry about it, and just sit tight while her parents handled things with Ludo. 

Star sighed slightly and nodded her head, which seemed to appease Marco. He moved his hand from her shoulder and announced that he was heading off to bed, before exiting her room, presumably to do just that. 

Star called after her friend to wish him goodnight, and then found herself alone once more; well, almost alone, as the sudden soft nudges and jabs from within reminded her. 

But, now that she was basically alone, she found herself thinking. 

Her parents and Marco had both told her that she should just sit tight and allow other people to handle things regarding her missing book and mentor. And, she had to admit that maybe it would be best to let her other parents handle the search and rescue part, considering how poorly her own attempts had panned out; while she knew she wasn’t at all helpless, she also had to concede that her parents had a lot more resources available to them that would undoubtedly help with the task. 

At the same time, she knew she couldn’t just sit back and wait while other people actually did something to help. That just wasn’t who she was. 

“Rebel princess doesn’t sit tight,” Star said aloud to herself. “Rebel princess does things her own way.” 

She went over to her bedside draw and pulled out a notebook with a heart on the cover – one she’d bought not long ago, and had yet to write in. Now she had the perfect reason to use it. 

With the notebook in hand, Star sat down on the floor, placing the book on her lap before grabbing her wand and unscrewing the top to reveal a hidden pen, dripping with a golden, ink-like fluid. She then wrote on the cover of the notebook, “Star’s Notebook of Spells.” 

Now came the hard part, Star thought to herself as she placed the bell of her wand back over the pen. 

Clutching the wand tightly in one hand, she placed the other over her stomach and said in a low voice, “You gotta let me do this, okay?”

Taking a breath and hoping that her request would be obeyed this time, the princess waved her wand and cried, “Narwhal Blast!”

To her relief, the spell worked perfectly, producing a narwhal who went flying into the wall before flopping around on the floor. 

Star summoned the magical creature back into her wand, before repeating the motions that she’d used when performing the spell; she’d never really paid much attention to how she did her spells, since there had never been much reason to do so. Now she definitely needed to know exactly how to perform them, if she was going to actually succeed in what she wanted to do. 

Once she felt confident that she got the steps to the spell figured out, she once again unveiled the pen hidden inside her wand, opening up her new “Notebook of Spells” to the first page and starting to write. 

“Chapter One,” she muttered to herself, writing as she spoke. “Narwhal Blast…” 

For the next few hours, the princess continued to practice and write down the spells she had created, being careful to avoid any of the louder ones, out of fear of waking the Diazes. However, it didn’t take too long before she found herself losing a battle of wills and starting to fall asleep right there on the floor. 

Reluctant to stop, but also having to admit that it was unlikely she’d be able to stay awake for much longer, Star got up from the floor and placed the Notebook into her drawer once again, before climbing into bed. 

She didn’t bother changing into her pajamas, just placed her wand in its normal position underneath her pillow and made herself comfortable, snuggled under the blanket. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next few days passed by without too much happening, outside of the normal routine of going to school each day. The only exceptions to this were the fact that Star tried to add to her Notebook of Spells every day – a task that became harder and harder as she struggled to remember the various spells she’d glanced at while skimming through the old Book – and when she and Marco had been invited to Sensei’s birthday party. 

That party in particularly ended up being much more…interesting than Star would have ever expected. 

Much to her surprise, the magician who’d been hired to entertain everyone ended up being an actual magic-user, something called a Joy-Sucker, by the name of Preston Change-O. 

Unfortunately, when Star had tried to expose the fact that he’d been stealing everyone’s joy for himself, it completely backfired on her; everyone still loved Preston and was super angry at her for having messed up the magic show – even though it wasn’t really her fault.

But, that was in the past, and now she was back in her room, once again adding to her Notebook of Spells. She had just finished adding a bit more glitter to the most recently completed page when she heard a tapping on her window. 

“What?” she asked, looking over at the direction of the noise. Her confusion only grew when she saw one of the royal family’s ravens perched on the windowsill, a piece of parchment tied around its neck. 

“What are you doing here?” she asked the creature as she opened the window to allow it to enter the room. 

The raven didn’t say anything, instead choosing to just puff out its chest, as thought presenting the rolled-up parchment to her. 

That basically answered her question anyway, so she just took what she realized was a note from the raven, who apparently decided its job was done as the moment the note was removed from its neck, it just flew away. 

Star barely paid attention to that, instead choosing to focus on the contents of the note. At first, she was just somewhat curious, wondering why her parents had decided to send her a note, rather than just call her up on the mirror like they usually did. 

The feeling quickly turned to dread, however, as she read on and found out exactly why her parents had decided to send the letter. Star forced herself to ignore the sudden feeling of nausea that had begun to develop in the pit of her stomach, and ran downstairs, where Marco was watching television. 

“Marco! I need your help, like right now!” she cried, not even bothering to get to the bottom of the stairwell before calling out to her best friend. 

Marco jumped a little at the call; clearly he had not been expecting his friend to just yell for him like that. 

Once he recovered from the surprise of her sudden appearance, he looked over and said, “Sure, I’ll help…With what?” 

That actually took Star a little by surprise; she had been so focused on the fact that she needed some help that it had completely blanked on her to figure out exactly what she wanted him to help her with…

For a few seconds, she tried to think of what he could do to help with what was coming up. Finally, she got an idea. 

“Can you just make some food? A lot of food, actually?” she suggested, giving him a hopeful smile as she made her request. He seemed confused, but eventually nodded in agreement. 

“Marco, you are the best and I cannot ever thank you enough,” Star told her friend. She gave him the most grateful look she could, before rushing back upstairs to her room. There was a lot to do, and really not much time at all to do it. 

The first thing she knew she had to do was clean up her room, and especially get rid of anything that she didn’t want anyone else to know about. Time seemed to melt away as she frantically cleaned, scrambling around the room and trying to figure out where to put all of the clutter. 

One of the first places she thought of to hide things was, of course, the Secrets’ Closet – an obvious choice, but definitely one she was going to use; she couldn’t afford to be picky right now. 

She gathered up a bunch of the stuff that was strewn about her bedroom floor, including Teddy, who loudly protested as she began to shove the pile of junk that he’d been scooped up into towards the open closet door. 

“But I don’t wanna go in the Secrets’ Closet!” the living plush toy shouted at his creator. Star, feeling somewhat guilty for what she was doing, but also knowing it was something that had to be done, was only able to give him an apologetic glance before continuing to move him, along with the rest of the pile, into the closet. Shoving the door shut behind her, she turned her attention back to the rest of her room. 

Even with so much of her junk put in the closet, her room was still way too messy for what was coming. So, she quickly summoned Beanbag, who opened his mouth to greet his creator…only for her to shove a bunch of stuff into his mouth and zip it shut. 

“You need to go hide now,” she told him, pointing in a random direction. 

Without waiting to see where Beanbag decided to hide, the princess glanced around her room, looking for anything else that she needed to clean up, as well as places for her to put all the clutter. She pushed a bunch of stuff underneath her bed, before using a portal spell to vanish away the bed, and everything underneath it.

Now her room was pretty much clean, but there were still a few things that she needed to take care of, before it was too late. As she went over to top the laser puppies from chewing on a sword that she’d somehow missed when she was cleaning up before, she was vaguely aware of the door opening up. 

“Hey, I got the stuff you asked for…” Marco began, trailing off as he watched the princess walk past without even looking at him. 

“Great,” she said, taking the sword away from the puppies, who yipped in response. She pointed towards a table she’d summoned a little earlier and added, “Just put it over there.” 

As she walked past Marco once more, she found herself being forced to pause when the boy grabbed her by the shoulder. His grip wasn’t particularly tight, but it was just enough to snap her out of her frantic thoughts…at least to a small extent. She turned to face him, silently asking what he was stopping her for. 

“Star, you need to tell me what’s going on,” Marco said, trying to sound firm, but his concern showing through in both his expression and his tone. “I mean, you’ve been freaking out like this pretty much all day, and I don’t even know why. You’re kind of scaring me, actually.” 

Star frowned a little as he told her all this. She had been so focused on getting ready that she hadn’t even considered how he’d feel about this whole thing. It hadn’t even crossed her mind that she’d never actually explained to him what was going on. 

Taking a deep breath, she pulled out the note she’d received from her parents earlier that day and held it out to her friend. 

“I got this note earlier – it’s from my parents,” she explained, speaking as quickly as she could while still keeping her words understandable. “Apparently they weren’t as okay with me losing the Book as they said they were, cause they’re sending someone here to have me…E-V-A-L-U-A-T-E-D.” 

Marco seemed to take a moment to figure out exactly what she’d been spelling, only to pause and ask her why she even bothered spelling it out. 

“I don’t know,” Star admitted, pulling away and shoving the last bit of junk into her trunk, which she gave wings and sent out of the window, hopefully not to be seen until after the evaluation was over. “All I know is that if I don’t pass this thing, then I’m going to have to leave Earth and go back to Mewni, probably forever.” 

That revelation seemed to trigger something inside of Marco. All of a sudden, his eyes flew open and he looked almost as frantic and fearful as Star felt at the moment. 

“What?!” he shouted, his voice cracking just a little. 

Star could do little more than nod solemnly as she double-checked around the room, looking for anything she might have missed in regards to cleaning. Even if she knew she couldn’t necessarily make the place literally spotless, she could only assume that the cleaner her room was when the evaluation started, the more likely she’d be to pass. 

“That’s why I need you to cook, and I need to clean,” she added, barely glancing over her shoulder at her friend as she zapped away some dust bunnies that she’d spotted near where her bed had been. 

However, she didn’t hear anything that sounded even remotely like protest from Marco, so she could only assume he was fine with going along with what she said. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him place several plates and bowls of food – including his special nachos, an excellent indicator of how good the spread was going to be – on the table. 

Star allowed herself a sigh of relief…which caught in her throat as it suddenly seemed like a small tornado started up in the middle of her room, with what looked like a thundercloud at the center. 

Despite having never gone through this particular process before, the princess had a pretty good idea of what was happening. 

“It’s her!” she cried, shielding her eyes from the worst of the winds, and bracing herself for whatever would emerge from the dark cloud. 

Another second passed before the winds finally died down and the cloud vanished, revealing…a fluffy white kitten with large, round eyes and little wings that fluttered to keep her aloft. 

Apparently neither of the teens could resist the obvious cuteness of the little creature, as they both let out identical noises of adoration upon seeing her. 

“Hello,” the kitten greeted, giving the teens a pleasant smile, to match her equally pleasant tone. “I’m here to see a one…Star Butterfly?” As she spoke, a small clipboard and pen appeared before her in a puff of smoke. 

Star stepped forward with a smile. “I’m a one Star Butterfly,” she announced, gesturing to herself with her thumb. “And you must be Baby?” 

One of the few things her parents’ note had actually told her about the evaluation, other than the fact that it was happening, was the name of who would be performing said evaluation. 

She had admittedly been expecting someone a little more…impressive-looking than the little kitten before her; but maybe it was best to not complain. After all, maybe this meant the evaluation wasn’t going to be as hard to pass if she thought. How hard could it be to satisfy someone who was so small and cute and fluffy? 

Still, the princess figured it was best to be on her toes, just to ensure that Baby was kept happy; that would only increase her chances of passing this particular test.

In response to Star’s questioning of her identity, the kitten just barely inclined her head in what seemed to be confirmation. She then looked over a little and her expression seemed to change, ever so slightly. 

“Oh!” Baby cried, her gaze fixed on the table of food that Star and Marco had set up for her. “Food!” 

“Yes,” Marco said, gesturing to the food. “I made this spread for you, Miss Baby. I hope you enjoy-“ 

Before the boy could finish his sentence, Baby flew past the table in a cloud of smoke and gust of wind. When both cleared, the food was completely gone, leaving nothing but empty plates and crumbs. Marco stared in obvious disbelief for several seconds, as Baby asked for more food. 

“That…took me all day to make,” he said, his irritation evident.

Star, worried that Baby would get upset if her request wasn’t met, leaned over to look at her friend from over the kitten’s shoulder. She whispered out a brief plea, trying to use her face to help remind him of just how important it was that she pass this evaluation. And that keeping Baby as happy as possible was only going to help make that possible. 

The couple of seconds that passed felt like hours, before Marco finally sighed and said, “I would love to make you more.” 

Without another word – though he did give Star a glance as he walked past her – the Earth boy exited the room, leaving the Mewnian princess alone with her examiner. For several moments, the two just stared at each other in silence, as though each was waiting for the other to say or do something specific. 

Baby sniffed softly, her eyes almost seeming to scan over Star’s body as she did so. Maybe it was just her imagining, but Star could have sworn that the kitten’s gaze lingered for just a moment on the area around her stomach. 

“So, uh, how does this evaluation work, exactly?” Star asked, breaking the silence. She was suddenly very eager to get this done and over whether as quickly as possible. 

Unfortunately, it seemed like Baby was going to be about as unhelpful as Glossaryck had always been. Rather than actually answering the question, she just gave one of her own. 

“How do you think it should go?” she asked, still in the same pleasant tone as before.

Star mentally fumbled for a moment. What did she think was supposed to happen with an evaluation like this? It wasn’t like she’d ever gone through anything like it before, and her parents’ note literally gave her zero idea of what to expect. All she knew was that she both wanted Baby to finish the evaluation as quickly as possible, and she really didn’t like how much the kitten had been focusing on her before. 

“I could show you my room?” she said, trying to sound a lot more confident in the suggestion than she really felt. 

After seeming to consider it for a few seconds, Baby nodded and Star felt herself relax. 

For the next few moments, the princess led her evaluator around the room; which wasn’t exactly all that difficult considering the room was pretty much empty. Baby said almost nothing during the tour, other than occasionally commenting that something was “Interesting.”

It wasn’t until Star had basically shown her the entire room that Baby said anything else. 

“What’s that?” 

Confused as to what the kitten was referring to, Star turned to face where she was looking; and had to stop herself from jumping when she spotted Beanbag, just standing there, still bulging from all the junk she’d stuffed inside of him. 

“That’s just Beanbag!” Star announced cheerfully as she finally regained her composure. Doing her best to keep up her charade, she walked over and patted her creation on the top of his head. “I guess he really wanted to meet you, because I could have sworn he was asleep, in the _other room_.” 

She added quite a bit of emphasis on the last part, which was directed more towards Beanbag than Baby. Hadn’t she told him to hide before the evaluation started? What was he doing, just standing there where anyone could see him? 

She then realized that she had just said that Beanbag wanted to meet Baby, which meant…

Swallowing slightly – and quickly praying that things would go well – the princess gently nudged the cushiony creature towards her examiner, cheerfully telling him to say hello. Which he did…resulting in everything that she’d put into his mouth falling out and onto the floor. 

Star couldn’t help but groan; obviously her prayers had not been answered. However, Baby didn’t say anything, and just wrote on her clipboard, making the same little hum as before. Her tone still didn’t change, even as she once again looked up and asked, “And what is that?” 

This time, the princess knew what she was talking about, even without looking. 

“Oh, you don’t want to see that – it’s super boring. It’s just my Secrets’ Closet and…Oh.” Star mentally slapped herself as she realized she’d said too much. 

As she noticed Baby started to hover over to the door, her first instinct was to try and stop her; after all, what she’d put into the Secrets’ Closet was about a billion times worse than everything she’d stuffed into Beanbag. However, when she stopped her, the kitten once again looked at her in a way that made Star feel incredibly uncomfortable, so she reluctantly allowed her to continue. 

Despite the girl’s fears, after Baby looked inside the Closet – and saw everything hidden away inside – she didn’t freak out at all. Quite the opposite, actually. 

“Interesting,” was the only comment she had to give, before writing something else down on the clipboard she held in her tiny little paws. Star decided she was going to take the lack of obvious anger at the discovery as a good thing, and allowed herself to relax a little. 

Then she heard what she could have sworn was a soft sniffing noise, and saw that Baby was once again staring at her, with an odd look in her round green eyes that she couldn’t quite place. 

“Hey, uh, Baby, you wanna see my wand?” Star asked suddenly. Not waiting for a response, she reached behind her to pull out the device, which she laid out on her hands for the kitten to see. 

Without missing a beat, Baby examined the wand, just staring at the broken crystal for a few moments, not making a sound besides an occasional soft hum of…whatever emotion she was feeling; it really was impossible to tell. 

“It looks…so different from your mother’s,” Baby finally said as she continued to look at the wand that was held out before her. 

Star wasn’t sure how exactly she was supposed to take the statement; no matter what Baby said, her tone never seemed to change, which made it impossible to figure out whether she was happy or angry or whatever. 

Still, she decided to take the comment as a good sign, if only because she figured that if Baby was paying attention to her stuff, then she wouldn’t pay as close attention to the princess herself. 

“Yeah, it’s cool, right?” Star asked, trying to sort of springboard off of Baby’s apparent interest in the unique design of her wand. When the kitten did little more than nod her head slightly, she figured it might be a good idea to get onto a new topic of discussion. 

“Hey, Baby?” Star began, waiting for her evaluator to look up at her before continuing. “Do you wanna see something else really cool?” 

Baby looked up, and while her expression didn’t change, the princess chose to just go along with it. She held up a finger to silently tell the kitten to stay where she was, before darting over to where her bed used to be, and where the bedside drawer still stood. 

Honestly starting to feel a little excited, she opened up the drawer and pulled out the notebook within. 

“I’ve been working on making my own spellbook for a few days now,” Star told Baby as she walked over, holding out the “Notebook of Spells” out to the little creature. 

“Oh,” Baby said, her tone changing for the first time since the evaluation began, though just slightly. “That looks interesting, too.” 

She took the notebook from Star’s hands and opened it up to a random page. When a bunch of loose glitter fell out, she watched the waterfall as it poured out onto the floor, but otherwise seemed to have no reaction. 

Instead, she just waited until it seemed there was no more glitter left to evacuate the page, and turned to another one; her expression never changed, making it impossible to figure out what her opinion was of the princess’s latest creation. 

The door opened then, revealing Marco, carrying a tray full of various kinds of drinks. When the boy asked who wanted refreshments, Baby’s expression very briefly morphed into one of delight and she whisked past him, taking the drinks (along with the glasses that held them) as she did, leaving Marco holding the empty tray. 

With Baby out of earshot, Marco took the opportunity to approach Star. 

“How’s it going?” he asked, keeping his voice low, just to be safe. 

“Interesting? That’s good, right?” the girl responded with an uncertain thumbs-up. In all honesty, she really had no idea how the evaluation was going, though obviously she wanted to try and be optimistic about the whole thing; if only because she really did not want to think about what the worse case scenario would be, should she fail. 

“I’m not sure…” Marco began, only to be cut off when Baby suddenly reappeared in front of them. She somehow managed to hold all of the empty glasses in her arms, and didn’t even look like she was having any issues doing so, despite how small her arms were. 

“I’d like something else to eat now, please,” she said in the same pleasant tone as before, practically shoving the empty glasses into the boy’s arms. 

Marco panicked briefly, trying to avoid accidentally dropping any of the fragile cups. Once he’d gotten a good hold on all of them, he let out a slightly defeated sigh and left the room once more, presumably to fulfill Baby’s request for more food. 

As she watched her friend leave, Star made a silent promise to herself that she’d do something to both thank him for his help, and make up for the fact that he was basically being treated like a servant right now. She was brought out of those thoughts when Baby floated over to her. 

“How is your spell-casting, princess?” Baby questioned, briefly glancing down at her clipboard before looking back at the Mewman.

“Oh, my spells? They’re great – never any problems at all,” Star said with a grin. She was lying through her teeth, but there was no way she was going to say anything about how unpredictable her magic had been, lest it tip off the cat-like creature to the exact reason why her magic was acting so weird. 

Baby smiled at this, and for the briefest moment, Star felt herself relaxed. 

Was the evaluation finally over? If it was, then she could only assume she’d passed, considering Baby seemed pretty satisfied with everything she’d seen; at least, Star had been unable to remember any point where she’d shown any obvious negativity towards anything, which had to be good enough to at least allow her to pass, and therefore, stay. 

“Excellent.” Baby said with a smile. “Now, if you wouldn’t mind demonstrating your magic by bringing me that apple.” 

Star was about to ask what she was referring to, as there were no apples in the room. 

Before she could get the words out, however, a small bright red apple suddenly just appeared on a small table a few feet away from the two. 

Star did her best to avoid cringing at the request, but apparently she must have made some kind of noise, or show her displeasure at the idea in someway; because she suddenly noticed Baby staring right at her, her head tilted so slightly it was barely noticeable. 

“I mean, sure I can do that,” Star said quickly, smiling and hoping that her lie was as convincing as she was trying to make it. “No problem – it’ll be super easy.” 

Still smiling somewhat nervously, she walked to the other side of the table and stared at the apple. 

Taking a deep breath, and offering a silent prayer that her spell would work like it was supposed to, she lifted up her wand and yelled, “Narwhal Blast!” 

The spell worked just as it was supposed to, firing out a small narwhal directly at the apple, sending it flying into the wall, where Baby went to retrieve it. Star smiled at the accomplishment; surely now the evaluation had to be over, didn’t it? 

“Not quite,” Baby said, pulling the narwhal – along with the apple – out of the wall. Star felt her heart drop into her stomach as she continued: “I want you to bring me a _whole apple_ not an apple _with_ a hole in it. Now, let’s try that again.” 

The first apple vanished, and a second appeared right back on the table. 

Star still felt nervous, but pushed the feeling down as she once again raised her wand. She was going to pass this magic test, no matter how many times it took…though she did hope it wouldn’t take that long; after all, the longer she held onto her wand, the more chances there were of her getting more magic bursts, and she really could not deal with those right now. 

So, for the next several moments, the princess kept using whatever spells she could think of to try and send the fruit over to Baby. 

Fortunately, the majority of the time, she was able to actually do the spells she wanted without too much issue – though there were a few small hiccups, but thankfully none that seemed to be picked up by the cat-like creature. 

Unfortunately, no matter how many spells she tried, the apple never made it to Baby’s paws without being destroyed in some way. 

Finally, Star found herself unable to do anything but fire off random spells at the fruit, in the desperate hope that something, anything might actually work. After literally making the apple pop at one point, she was about to try again, when Baby held up a paw, making her freeze in the middle of raising her wand to perform another spell. 

“There’s no need for that,” the kitten announced, writing something down on her clipboard before putting away the pen. “I’ve seen all I need to make my decision. Goodbye.” 

The sudden announcement caught Star off guard, leaving her unable to respond for a moment. As soon as she recovered, she rushed over to intercept Baby as the dark cloud dashed towards the open window. 

“Wait!” she cried out, stepping in front of the cloud. As Baby rematerialized, the princess asked, “How did I do?” 

While the kitten looked down at her clipboard and made a couple thoughtful noises, Star could only smile hopefully, all while internally screaming as she waited, and hoped she’d get the answer she wanted. 

“You failed.” Baby said, her cheerful tone not matching her words at all. Apparently seeing no other reason to stay, she once again started towards the window, only to pause again when Star, out of combination of fear and frustration said a few simple words: “So, this whole thing was just a big waste of time?!” 

Baby froze mid-flight and turned around to face the princess once more. And for the first time since she’d arrived, her expression changed; it wasn’t much, just her smile changing to a frown, but it was more than enough to make Star start to feel somewhat unsettled. 

Maybe she shouldn’t have said anything…

”Princess,” Baby began in a voice that seemed seconds away from screaming with rage, holding out her clipboard so Star could barely see what was written on it, “would you like to me to read you the results of my evaluation?” 

Without even giving Star the chance to respond, she turned the clipboard around once more and started to read off the points. 

“You have a closet full of secrets,” she said, briefly glancing at the list before narrowing her eyes at the girl in front of her. 

“But…what does that have to do with –“ Star tried to ask, her voice starting off at almost a mumble and trailing off near the end, being so low by that point that she found herself completely cut off when the tirade against her continued. 

“While under your care, the magic wand – the most important heirloom of the Butterfly dynasty – was broken. To make things worse, you lost the Magic Book of Spells, and decided to just… _replace_ with a college-ruled notebook. Your magic is completely undisciplined; you can’t even perform the most basic of magical tasks.” 

With each point made against her, the Mewnian princess felt like she’d been punched in the gut. As much as she hated to admit it, she realized that all of Baby’s points were completely valid. That didn’t make the fact that she’d failed any less painful though – 

“And that’s not even the worst thing.”

Star looked up again, confused. She had assumed that Baby was done with listing off all of the reasons she’d failed, but apparently she had been very wrong about that. 

“You asked me before what your closet of secrets had to do with my evaluation. Well, that closet simply represents all of the other dangerous secrets you’ve been keeping, doesn’t it?” Baby questioned, her voice cold. 

She then allowed her gaze to drift down, moving from Star’s eyes and landing on the girl’s stomach, lingering there for several seconds before looking her in the eyes once more, this time with a look of cold accusation. 

Star felt all of the blood drain from her face at this; she _knew_. She fought against the almost instinctive desire to try and cover her stomach as she felt a bit of squirming within; almost as though her daughter was just as afraid as she was at the moment. 

“I…I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Star tried to insist, unable to keep her voice from trembling. 

Not surprisingly, Baby did not seem convinced by this particular lie. “Of course you do,” she said, voice sounding as though it was literally made of pure ice. “The smell of magic coming off of you is very distinct – I was able to detect it from the moment I arrived. That alone was more than enough to warrant failing you, but I chose to give you a chance – and you still failed.” 

“But if I failed, then…I have to go home, and you’ll tell my parents…” Star said, sounding completely broken. 

This could not be happening. This was literally the worst thing that she could imagine happening right now. 

She had already been dreading the possibility of being forced to return to Mewni, because she feared that if she was constantly around her parents, it’d only be a matter of time before one of them realized that there was something up with her. Now, it seemed like she wasn’t even going to get the luxury of getting a chance to even _try_ and protect her child; once Baby gave her report, her child’s fate would be sealed. 

Baby however, was completely unconcerned with the princess’s dilemma. 

“That’s not my problem,” she said coldly, shaking her head as she glared down at Star, who felt herself coming closer to tears with each passing moment. But, she knew that wouldn’t help matters, so she took a few deep, shaky breaths before making any more attempts to try and appeal to the kitten. 

“Please don’t tell,” she pleaded. “I promise, I’ll do anything, anything at all, if you don’t tell my parents about this.” 

Baby sighed, and for the briefest of moments, Star thought she caught a glimpse of what almost looked like sympathy in her eyes; it faded about as quickly as the princess thought it had come. 

“I’m sorry, princess,” she said – though she sound less regretful and more like she was trying to sound patient, and just barely able to avoid failing miserably. “I take no pleasure in doing this, but I cannot conceal the fact that you are –“ 

All of a sudden, the door to Star’s bedroom opened up, the sound cutting Baby off before she could finish what she was about to say. 

Marco stepped into the room, completely unaware of what exactly was going on between his friend and the magical creature who had come to his house. 

It was quickly made apparent that he was making a serious effort to make Baby happy, considering the tone in his voice when he announced his entrance. “Who wants sandwiches?” he asked, holding out a tray covered in sandwiches of all kinds. 

“GET OUT!” screamed Star and Baby in unison – the princess crying out in horror, and the kitten literally roaring in rage. 

The Earth boy froze, eyes flying open at this obviously unexpected reaction. He seemed particularly surprised by how Star had responded to his entering – probably because it was so unlike how she typically responded to him coming into her room, which was pretty much no reaction whatsoever. 

Without another word, Marco backed up, exiting the room and closing the door behind him. 

Star waited a few seconds, until she was almost certain her friend was in another room before making another attempt to appeal to whatever better nature Baby had – and she had to have some; her family wouldn’t associate with someone who was completely heartless, right? 

“Okay, how about this? I do some really amazing magic to get that apple for you, and you let me pass the evaluation – and don’t tell anyone about my secret,” Star proposed. 

The seconds that passed after the made the suggestion felt each felt like an eternity, while she waited for an answer. 

“I make no promises,” Baby finally said. She did move aside, taking out her pen once more as she looked at the young princess out of the corner of her eye. 

Star took that as a good sign; it at least seemed to indicate that Baby was willing to take her up on the offer. Now she just had to do the amazing magic that she’d brought up…which she suddenly realize may be much easier said than done. 

Still, she had to try. Taking a deep breath, Star grasped the handle of her wand in both hands, and concentrated about as hard as she could. She thought of the most spectacular thing she could imagine to bring the apple to Baby, something she was sure would impress the kitten-like creature at least enough to change her mind about failing her. 

Slowly letting out the breath she’d taken, she allowed the magic to flow through her wand, feeling the very slight vibrations from the device as the crystal fired off the magic she’d summoned. 

As the wand grew still, Star opened her eyes to see the apple glow with a mixture of pink and bright green light…before it split in half, each half lying side by side on the table. 

Star felt her heart sink as she heard Baby say, “Goodbye.” 

She couldn’t believe it; she just couldn’t. She had done literally everything she could think of to make this work, and she still failed. 

And now, there was nothing she could do but wait until her parents summoned her back to Mewni to receive her ultimate fate. Star closed her eyes, not wanting to watch as Baby headed towards the open window on her way to tell the King and Queen what she had discovered about their daughter. 

She only opened them again when she heard a soft twinkling noise coming from behind her; an almost magical sound. Curious – and maybe a little hopeful – she slowly turned toward the source of the sound, and gasped in wonder. 

A huge tree, shimmering with both green and pink light, was growing directly out of the two halves of the apple that had been left behind, the trunk stretching towards the ceiling even as the branches started to spread, with one extending far beyond the others, stopping just before the dark cloud that was Baby. 

The kitten paused mid-flight, watching wide-eyed as a flower blossomed at the end of the branch before her, developing into an apple even more perfect than the one she’d wanted Star to bring to her. She plucked the apple from the branch and looked into her own reflection in the fruit’s bright, shiny skin. 

“It’s perfect,” she said, turning back to face the princess, even as her eyes remained locked on the apple in her paw. 

“Does this mean she can stay?” Star hadn’t even noticed Marco coming into the room, but she didn’t acknowledge him even now that she’d realized he was there; instead, she just kept her eyes on Baby, nervously awaiting whatever the answer to the boy’s question would be. 

Baby didn’t say anything, but she glanced at the apple once more, before giving Star a surprisingly warm smile. 

Star felt her entire body relax as she allowed herself to smile back, watching as Baby vanished into a cloud once again, flying out the window as she returned to Mewni. Once she was gone, Star finally turned to look over at her friend…and almost immediately wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close for a brief, but very firm hug. 

For a moment, Marco seemed surprised by the display of affection – and admittedly, for good reason, considering how the Mewman girl had been so unwilling to give or accept any hugs ever since the night of the school dance, just over a week ago. However, the look of surprise on his face soon melted away to a smile as the two friends walked out onto the balcony. 

“So…what do we do now?” Marco asked, looking to Star, who just shrugged in response. 

“I have no idea,” she admitted, though she was still smiling as she said it. 

Truthfully, right now she could really care less about what they did for the rest of the day. She was just too relieved to care much about anything. 

For her, all that really mattered right now was that she’d passed the evaluation, and that meant her secret was safe.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

“She has a closet full of secrets, a broken wand, a notebook full of her own spells, and,” Baby paused in her report to take a bite out of the cupcake she’d lifted from the table, “she doesn’t know basic magic.” 

Queen Moon looked down at the table upon hearing all of this. 

“So, she failed, then,” she said somberly. She truly felt sad for her daughter, knowing how much Star had come to love Earth and the friends she had made there. But, if she had failed the evaluation, then there was no other choice but to bring her back to Mewni. 

“No, my queen.” Moon looked up, surprised to hear the reply from the kitten. 

She gave Baby a slightly confused look, and the creature continued to speak: “Star is nowhere near your skill level at her age – she’s far _beyond_ it.” 

Once more, Moon looked down at the table, now more unsure than ever. Yes, she was relieved for Star’s sake to learn that she had passed the evaluation, despite all the points Baby had made against her in that regard. However, there was something about what she had just heard that left her feeling rather uneasy. 

“In fact,” Baby continued, tossing the rest of the cupcake into her mouth, causing the remainder of her sentence to sound slightly muffled, “I haven’t seen anything like this since Queen Eclipsa.” 

Both the King and the Queen let out a gasp of breath upon hearing the comparison between their daughter and the infamous Queen of Darkness. Moon was too stunned to speak, while River could only manage to say two simple words: “Monster love…” 

“Interesting!” Baby said, sounding almost amused as she pilfered yet another cupcake from the plate in front of River – much to the King’s obvious disdain – and licked a bit of the frosting off. 

River, already less than pleased by the evaluator’s presence, angrily demanded to know what she meant by that comment. 

She didn’t even bother to look at him, choosing instead to eat a little more of the frosting from the cupcake she held. She did, however, decide to actually answer his question. 

“Interesting how the first thing you think of is Queen Eclipsa’s love life,” she explained, finishing off the last bit of the frosting, before eating the rest of the cupcake in one bite. “You Mewmen…always going in cycles, it seems.” 

This particular comment seemed to affect Moon quite a bit, as she suddenly seemed to be actually trying to force herself to remain calm. The Queen took a breath, and then looked at the creature hovering before her, her voice steady and stern as she gave one simple order: “Explain.” 

She didn’t have the slightest inkling of what Baby meant, talking about cycles, and what that had to do with the apparent connection between her daughter and her ancestor; but she knew this was something she needed to know. 

“I mean that Star has a secret, my Queen,” Baby answered simply, eating yet another cupcake. “As well as an apparent disregard for the sacred laws of her people – just as her ancestor did, all those years ago.” 

Moon and River exchanged the briefest of looks at his news; which was certainly not what they had been hoping to hear. “You don’t mean that she’s fallen in love with a monster?” the King asked, both looking and sounding somewhat horrified by the idea. 

Without even looking away from Queen Moon – who seemed just as stunned by this news as her husband, though she was much better at hiding it – Baby simply shook her head. 

“No,” she said, her voice taking on a tone that was slightly more somber than before. “But, you won’t like it any better.” 

“Enough of this,” Moon said suddenly, causing Baby’s attention to snap back to her face. Despite a small part of her being afraid of what she might hear, and wishing to remain ignorant, she looked the creature straight in the eye and order: “Tell me what you know.” 

Baby nodded and gave a brief bow of respect. The instant she straightened her body again, she did exactly as her Queen had ordered. 

“Your daughter is pregnant, my Queen,” she announced, obviously seeing no more reason to avoid getting directly to the point. “The child’s father is the son of her host family – Marco Diaz, I believe was his name. That is what I meant by saying Star had a secret just like her ancestor – both she and Eclipsa chose to consummate their loves, despite each being forbidden by Mewnian laws.” 

The room had gone silent from almost the moment Baby had started to speak, neither the King nor the Queen able to speak upon hearing this particular news. However, that wasn’t to say that they had no response to hearing exactly what their daughter had been keeping secret from them. 

The very instant that Baby had announced that Star was pregnant, Moon had grasped the ornate hand rests of her chair tightly – so tightly that the cracking sound made by the heavy wood echoed throughout the room for a brief moment afterwards. 

Now, it seemed like all of the blood had drained from the Queen’s face and into her husband’s, as Moon had gone completely white, while River’s face was bright red. 

“Liar!” he roared, practically climbing onto the table as he took a swing at Baby. He went to grab for the kitten-like being, all the while angrily screaming at her. “I won’t believe it, you filthy…little…lying… _thing_!” 

Never once even giving the furious ruler a glance, Baby stayed facing a stunned and silent Moon, only moving just enough to avoid the attempted attacks by her King. 

“I’m afraid it is true, my Queen. And the boy doesn’t seem to be aware of Star’s condition,” Baby said, pausing to eat another cupcake before she added, “At least, not yet.” 

Moon just sat there, completely frozen with her hands still tightly grasping the now ruined hand rests. For several seconds, the only sounds in the room were River’s angry shouts at Baby, which echoed throughout the room – and likely at least partway down the hall. 

“River…sit down and be quiet,” Moon said, speaking for the first time since Baby had told them what she knew. In complete contrast with her husband, there was no emotion in the Queen’s voice; though the way her body was trembling slightly made it very clear that to say she felt nothing was far from accurate. 

River paused in his attempts to alternatively grab and hit the kitten upon hearing his wife’s demand. He seemed genuinely stunned. 

“Moon, my dear, you can’t believe this,” he said, his eyes beginning to fill with tears as he practically pleaded with his wife. “Not Star. She would never…Maybe it was that boy – he could have forced her to –“ 

He was cut off by Moon holding up a hand, a silent order to be silent. She didn’t even pretend to entertain his frantic suggestion that the boy could have forced himself on their daughter; even disregarding the fact that from what she’d seen of her daughter’s friend, it seemed impossible that the boy would ever consider something so abhorrent, the simple fact was that there was no way an Earthling would have the slightest chance of overpowering a Mewnian princess. 

“We have indulged her time and time again. No matter what she does, you insist she shouldn’t be blamed for it. It was an accident. She didn’t mean to. It must be someone else’s fault,” Moon said, her voice in the same emotionless tone as before. “Even when she burned down half the Kingdom, you begged me not to punish her, not even to send her to St. Olga’s.” 

She clutched the hand rests even tighter, closing her eyes tightly as though the words she was speaking were painful even for her. “And I listened to you – instead of St. Olga’s, I had her sent to Earth. Do you see what our indulgence has done? Now our headstrong, reckless, beautiful daughter is utterly, utterly _ruined_.” 

As soon as the last word left her lips, all of the emotion that it seemed Moon had been holding back broke through, as she buried her face in the palms of her hands, and her shoulders began to shudder with her sobs. 

Meanwhile, Baby seemed much more interested in gathering up more snacks from the table than even acknowledging her Queen’s reaction. Once she’d gathered what she wanted, she vanished in a cloud of smoke, leaving the Queen and King alone to deal with the news that had just been delivered to them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here I leave with a bit of a cliffhanger until the beginning of the next chapter, when we'll see exactly how Moon and River are going to respond to finding out about Star's pregnancy. Obviously neither of them is happy about it...but just have to wait and see what they decide to do about it.
> 
> Before anyone asks, no I don't think River was seriously accusing Marco of forcing himself on Star, in any way. He was just desperate to come up with any way to deny that his daughter, who he still sees as his little girl in a lot of ways, could have done something like that, out of her own desire.


	12. Chapter 12

It was a few moments between when Baby left the castle to return to…wherever she called home and when River found himself able to do much of anything. Even then, the only thing he was actually able to do was get out of his chair and start pacing back and forth. 

With the cat-like creature gone, the vast majority of his anger regarding what she had said had vanished, leaving behind an almost overwhelming sense of dread and uncertainty. The fact that his wife was still just sitting in her chair, holding her face in her hands – though her sobs had died down considerably by this point – did little to alleviate either of those feelings. 

“Talk to me, dear,” River practically pleaded, looking over to his wife as he continued to pace, yanking on his own beard as he raked his brain. “What are we going to do about…?” 

He couldn’t even bring himself to say it; it was hard enough to even believe that it was possible for something like that to be true. But, despite how he’d reacted when Baby had first told them about Star’s secret, River had to reluctantly admit that she wouldn’t have lied, not about something that serious. Which now meant they had an equally serious issue on their hands, and it was not something he could handle on his own, even if he wanted to.

Unfortunately, Moon hadn’t looked up from where she’d buried her face in her hands since Baby had left, and when she finally spoke, she had nothing to say in response to her husband’s plea. Instead, she seemed to be speaking out loud to herself. 

“She broke her wand, and she didn’t want to tell us. She lost the Book and Glossaryck, and she wanted to keep it from us, and we’ve kept it from the people and the Magic High Commission. Now this…It’s too much…I…I can’t…” she said, her voice both muffled slightly due to her speaking into her forearms, and cracking a bit from just pure emotion. 

River shook his head in response to his wife’s dismayed comments, continuing to pace even as he was certain his boots were beginning to wear a track in the flooring. 

“You know I’m as upset about all of that as you are,” he began, his own voice starting to strain slightly as he barely kept himself together. “But that’s not important at the moment. We need to figure out what we’re going to do about Star and…We just have to figure out what we’re going to do _now_.” 

This seemed to break through to Moon, at least somewhat. She lifted her head from her hands to actually look at the man pacing before her. 

However, her eyes were still tinged with red from crying, and the tears had left very visible marks down her cheeks, not helped in the slightest by the fact that her despaired actions had caused her normally immaculate make-up to smudge and run, particularly around her eyes. 

“There is nothing we _can_ do, River,” she replied, sounding somewhere between frustration and grief. 

The mournful tone in her voice was enough to get the King to stop pacing, freezing mid-step directly in front of her. He turned to her with a look of disbelief on his face. 

He opened his mouth, ready to say something – either a question or some form of protest – in response to what she’d just said, only to close it when she gave him a look that made it clear she already knew what he was about to say. 

“You know the law just as well as I do,” Moon said. “And so does Star – that’s why she would not tell us. It’s why she wouldn’t tell _me_.” 

The Queen’s voice lowers slightly on the last word; she seemed to be saying it more to herself than to her husband. 

River frowned at this, his eyes widening slightly from disbelief. Of course he knew the law she was referring to; pretty much everyone in the kingdom, with the exception of the very youngest children, knew that particular law. However, despite that knowledge, he still couldn’t believe what he was hearing – and what the words actually meant. 

It took him a moment to speak, and when he did, the only words that came out of his mouth were shocked and angry – “That is heartless!” He wasn’t angry at his wife, of course – she was just reminding him of the laws of their people; but that didn’t mean his enraged statement didn’t hold true. 

Yes, he’d never really questioned the law before – mostly because he’d never had any reason to question it. Now he had a very good reason to do some questioning, and he was going to do just that. 

“Star – our Star – sent away to live in exile and be forgotten, just like that, never able to come home again?” he asked, once again grasping clumps of his beard in his hands – something he did sometimes without thinking when he got extremely worried or frustrated. “Her child – our grandchild – killed?” 

There was a brief moment of silence after he’d said that last sentence, as the full weight of what he’d just said seemed to hit the King. Even though he’d reluctantly accepted that Baby hadn’t been lying when she’d informed them that Star was expecting, it had still been difficult for him to truly wrap his head around the idea. Now that he’d finally been able to actually say it, it was much easier to fully accept that this was all really happening – even if it was still very hard to believe. 

“How can we let that happen? Surely this law can be changed – laws are created and changed all the time without any issue. Let’s just summon the royal lawstrel and –“ River paused in his rambling when he saw how his wife responded. 

For the past few moments, Moon hadn’t spoken a single word, just watching her husband as he’d given his short speech. She still hadn’t said anything, but he saw her head move slowly from side to side, an obvious rejection of his proposal. 

“This isn’t the same thing, River – you know that,” Moon said, a slight bit of frustration just barely noticeable in the very evident sorrow of her voice. “This is a law as old as the kingdom itself – it is practically sacred to the people. Even if we were to order the lawstrel to change the law as it is written, we cannot change the impact that this law has had on our people for so many generations.”

She paused briefly, looking down at the table rather than at River. For the briefest of moments, she closed her eyes tightly in an attempt to force the tears that were threatening to fall once more to stay in place, her hands grabbing hold of the cracked hand-rests for a split second. 

“The law is absolute – it cannot be changed,” she concluded once she’d regained some degree of composure. Her voice had taken on a hollow tone just then, as though she’d somehow been replaced by some form of machine in the few seconds between one statement and the next. 

River’s voice, on the other hand, was practically overflowing with emotion as he asked, in a disbelieving voice, “And…you will see this done?” 

He had always known that his wife was a bit of a stickler for the rules – it was why he had a few secrets of his own that he kept from her, even after over two decades of marriage, after all. 

Still, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Surely there had to be rules that even she was willing to break, at least in extenuating circumstances – and their current predicament certainly fell under that particular label. 

“No,” Moon replied, looking down and shaking her head. Her voice was low, so low that River had to strain his ears slightly just to hear the words being spoken to him. “I won’t live to see my child disgraced like that.”

Letting out a sigh of relief, River let go of his beard and smiled. 

“Excellent,” he said with a nod, instantly brightening. He turned on his heels and started walking towards the huge doors that led into the dining chambers. As he walked, he continued to speak, talking out loud to himself. “So, we’ll bring our little Star back home, and together, the three of us can figure out how we’ll handle this whole debacle.” 

“You misunderstood me,” Moon said suddenly, breaking into River’s thoughts. 

Confused, he turned on the spot to look back at her, frowning when he saw the expression on her face. It actually frightened him, to see her looking like that – like the life had just completely drained out of her. The feeling of fear was so overwhelming that he couldn’t even bring himself to say a word. 

Not that he needed to; Moon seemed to know what he wanted to say, even without him uttering a single syllable. 

“When I said I won’t live to see our daughter disgraced, I meant just that – that I will not be alive to see it happen. I have already lost my father. My mother. My…To lose my child will be the end of me.” 

It took a moment for what she said –and more importantly, what she meant – to register with River; and once it did, he felt his heart start to lurch inside of his chest. 

“This isn’t like you. You’ve never given into despair like this before,” he said, desperately trying to keep his voice from cracking. The last thing he needed to do right now was start blubbering. He needed to keep himself together; for possibly the first time in their relationship, he had to be the strong one, to help his wife from falling apart. “Even when you first lost your mother, and went to face the monster hoarde, you stayed strong. If you could make it through that, surely something like this won’t stop you.” 

These words seemed to greatly effect Moon, though it was difficult to notice the subtle changes in how she sat – unless you knew her as well as her husband did. 

Despite still feeling quite a bit of concern and fear, he couldn’t help but allow himself to smile a little as she looked at him, the light finally returning to her eyes. There was still very clear fear and sadness in her eyes, but that didn’t matter in the slightest; he only cared that it appeared he’d succeeded in his goal of preventing her from giving up completely. 

“Back then, I was just a girl and I was completely lost on what to do. I was heartbroken and terrified, all at once,” Moon said, her voice low but unwavering. 

It seemed more like she was talking to herself, simply saying her thoughts aloud, rather than expecting any kind of response. Still, River nodded his head slightly, muttering a soft statement of understanding. 

“But despite my fears, I was able to stay strong; because I knew that was what my people needed, and what my mother would have wanted. Now I feel just feel so old…so tired…and perhaps even more lost than I was as a child.”

The whole time Moon spoke, River kept himself quiet, just allowing her to get the words, and the feelings that accompanied them, off her chest. It honestly stunned him a little, to hear her say such things. 

He had always thought of his wife as the pillar of strength in pretty much all aspects of their lives and the kingdom; now he was learning that perhaps that image wasn’t quite correct. 

“What makes now any different from back then?” he asked, his voice uncharacteristically low, but in the quiet of the room, it was more than enough to catch the attention of the Queen. “You said that you felt the same as a girl as you do now – if you were able to fight for the kingdom back then, surely you can fight again now, for our family.” 

Another moment passed in silence, with Moon seeming to consider what had just been said. Finally, she nodded her head, a motion so slight that one may have missed it, had they not been paying close attention. 

“For our family,” she echoed, her voice still low, but much more assured than it had been since the start of the conversation. 

She grabbed a small cloth from the table and quickly cleaned her face with it, wiping away the marks made by the tears she’d shed before. Once it appeared she was satisfied with her work, the Queen folded up the used cloth and placed it aside, before rising from her seat and walking to the door. 

“Shouldn’t we discuss things, my dear?” King River questioned, watching his wife with a confused look on his face. 

“We will,” she answered, though she never even glanced in his direction. “However, there is something I need to take care of, first.”

Her answer didn’t make him any less confused; if anything, it had the complete opposite effect. However, he trusted his wife completely, and so he only nodded in response, watching as she stepped into the hall, closing the huge wooden doors behind her. 

Now alone in the dining room, River stepped back over to his seat. As he sat down to wait for Moon to return from whatever her current errand happened to be, he grabbed one of the few desserts that Baby had apparently deemed unworthy for her to devour, and placed it onto his plate. 

Perhaps it wasn’t the best time to be eating, but now that he was alone, he found himself becoming entirely aware of exactly how he felt in regards to learning about the situation involving his daughter. And those feelings were incredibly uncomfortable, and he was more than happy to ignore them, if only for the few moments it would take for him to eat the treat on his plate. 

River reached for his fork, using the utensil to break off a piece of the tart, and getting mostly crust for his trouble. Grumbling to himself, he stabbed at the food again, this time managing to get some of the sweet filling on the fork. 

He took a bite…only to find that the fruit tasted rather sour on his tongue. 

“Perhaps it’d be best to save my appetite,” the King muttered to himself, placing the fork back on the plate and pushing both closer to the center of the massive table. And so he waited, the room feeling even larger than it truly was in his solitary state. 

He had never really enjoyed being on his own, even for short periods – and this only reminded him of the reasons why. So he was incredibly thankful when Moon returned a few minutes later, looking as formal and composed as she usually did. 

“I have asked the servants not to disturb us, under any circumstances, and for them to relay the order to all members of the staff,” Moon announced, clearly by way of explaining her sudden exit a few minutes prior. 

River only nodded in understanding. Despite what he knew certain people liked to say about him, he wasn’t a complete idiot; he knew that considering what he and his wife were about to discuss, it was best to ensure that there would be no chance of anyone happening to hear something they shouldn’t. 

“Until we know for sure what we are going to do, no one can know of this,” the Queen said as she once again took her seat opposite to the King’s. 

“Of course,” River replied, giving another nod. 

Suddenly, Queen Moon let out an exhausted-sounding sigh, bringing one hand up to massage her forehead as she shook her head, allowing her tiredness to truly show for the first time since Baby had left them to deal with the news she’d delivered. 

“…What _are_ we going to do?” River questioned hesitantly, almost as though he was afraid to hear the answer. 

Moon lowered her hand, placing her forearm on the table; no longer seeming to care about the rules of etiquette, she took no notice of her elbow resting on the wood. The other arm followed soon after as she used her forearms to support her as she leaned forward, letting out another sigh as she looked at her husband. 

“I…I don’t know,” she confessed, sounding almost ashamed as she did so. She took a breath before continuing to speak. “This sort of situation has never come up before, at any point in Mewni’s history – we are completely on our own in terms of coming up with a solution.” 

The King couldn’t help but frown a little at this confession. He had genuinely been hoping that his wife would know the best way to handle their predicament; despite his own determination to work things out, he had to admit that he was completely lost on exactly how they were supposed to do that. Unfortunately, it seemed like this was the first time in their relationship that both the King and the Queen seemed to be utterly lost on how to handle a problem. 

“But, there is one thing I am certain of,” Moon spoke up again, her voice breaking through River’s thoughts, and he gave her his full attention. “Until we have decided what must be done, we have to be sure that nobody discovers what has happened. If anyone else were to find out about this…” 

Unable, or perhaps unwilling, to finish that statement, she simply allowed herself to trail off somewhat, closing her eyes tightly and shaking her head. Not that she needed to say anything more than that. 

Considering how long this particular law had existed, and how sacred it was to the people for that exact reason, it went without saying that being made aware that the law had been defied would result in total chaos; and that was likely being extremely optimistic. That was why it went pretty much without saying that they had to handle the situation with extreme caution, lest the worst happen. 

Though, Moon’s statement did raise a question in her husband’s mind, once he had truly thought about what had been said. 

“And, what about the Magic High Commission? Should they be told about…this?” he asked. 

Moon began to shake her head before he’d even finished asking the question. “No,” she said, even though her actions had already made the answer perfectly clear. “For Star’s sake, it is best that this information remain between as few people as possible. We have to minimize the chances of the people discovering anything, at least until we know for sure how we shall address the issue.” 

Again, King River could do little more than nod, though he couldn’t help but start to feel even more uncertain than before. They were already keeping the loss of the Magic Book of Spells – and by extension, Glossaryck – from everyone; now they had this secret to worry about as well. 

With so many secrets to keep, River was starting to worry about how long he’d be able to go without running the risk of something slipping out. He’d just have to make sure to keep himself quiet, he told himself, literally clenching his fists for the briefest of moments as he strengthened his resolve. 

There was still a part of him that feared the possibility of him accidentally saying too much, but he assured that doubt that he would not; if it meant keeping his family together and safe, he’d make sure to keep his mouth shut about everything. 

Moon sighed again, causing River to look over at her with a touch of confusion in his eyes. 

“I cannot believe that Star could be so reckless. Even she should have known better than to take a risk like this,” she said, though it was hard to tell if she was speaking to her husband, or simply talking aloud to herself. 

Despite not knowing if he was expected to answer, River chose to do so anyway. Partly because, while he didn’t like to argue with his wife, he also couldn’t help but want to defend their daughter from her accusations; even if he also was far from happy with the consequences of Star’s actions. 

“You know she couldn’t have meant for something like this to happen, dear,” River said. Even as he said it, he knew that it was a rather flimsy excuse, and the look on his wife’s face made it very clear that she held the same opinion. 

Moon let out another heavy sigh, repositioning herself so that her back was once again pressed up against the cushioned back of her chair. 

“She still should have known better, River. She is nowhere near ready to be responsible for a child, especially not when she’s barely more than a child herself,” she said, and River honestly couldn’t say anything in protest to the assessment. Mostly because he actually completely agreed with everything she was saying. 

It was still extremely hard for him to believe it was true, however, even if he had very reluctantly admitted to himself that for as vile as he found her, Baby wouldn’t have lied, at least, not about something this serious. Still, he had only recently begun to accept the fact that Star was growing up, and wasn’t the same little girl he liked to remember her as; no one could blame him for having a hard time fully wrapping his head around the idea that his little girl was having a child of her own. 

“She must want the child, though” River piped up, at last actually coming up with something to say, even if it only vaguely related to the last words spoken. “After all, you said that was the reason she tried to keep it hidden, even from us.” 

“Yes,” Moon said with a nod. “I do not know if she’s fully aware of the amount of responsibility it will entail, but it appears our daughter is determined to go through with this whole fiasco.” 

The room went quiet once more, neither person seeming able to find the right words to continue. Or maybe neither of them felt right in breaking the silence – and the ability to think that it provided – just yet. 

After what seemed like an eternity, the silence was finally broken, by Moon: “We will need to discuss this with Star, that much is certain. Regardless of what solution we are able to come up with to handle the issues of both the child and the legitimacy laws, we must have a…conversation with our daughter about her….condition.” 

As she finished speaking, her expression changed to a thoughtful – and maybe even somewhat concerned – one. River fully understood why; while she was absolutely correct that they needed to talk to Star about what they’d learned, the fact that they couldn’t allow anyone outside of the very immediate family know about the child would make it difficult to bring up the subject to begin with. 

“Yes, well,” River began, clearing his throat to help clear away the lump that had begun to form there, “I’m sure we’ll decide how to best approach the subject soon enough. Besides, I’m sure we have plenty of time before anything happens that we truly have to concern ourselves over. No reason to just sit in this room and worry until we figure out a solution.” 

“This isn’t something to take lightly, River. You know that,” Moon said sternly, her eyes narrowing ever-so-slightly as she replied to the comment made by her husband. 

His cheeks turning red, the King muttered an apology. He hadn’t meant to make it sound like he wasn’t taking the situation seriously – that was the last thing he meant to convey. He just thought it’d be best to not worry too much about it for the time being; and he wanted to try to convince Moon to relax a little, rather than make herself upset by worrying more than was absolutely necessary.

Unfortunately, it appeared he had failed in obtaining what should have been a rather simple goal. The King hemmed and hawed to himself for several seconds, trying to figure out a way to reword his previous statement, to better get his intentions across. He was still thinking when Moon suddenly pushed her chair away from the table, just enough to allow her to stand.

“However,” she began, getting up from her seat. “I suppose you do have a point – we aren’t going to help anyone, much less Star, by doing nothing. We shall come up with a way to approach the subject with Star, without alerting anyone else, and we shall decide on how to handle the situation regarding the child. For the time being, however, we must not raise suspicion – outside of times when we are certain we are alone, we cannot discuss this; we must act as though everything is the same as it has always been.” 

The way she spoke left River pretty much speechless; mostly due to her tone of voice. He had only heard her use that tone on a handful of situations, including when she had made her intentions to rule as Queen in her own right clear to the Magic High Commission all those years ago. It was a tone that brokered no argument, from anyone – not that he would have ever considered arguing against her, especially in a situation such as this. 

However, because he wouldn’t even consider making an argument, he also had very little to say in response, other than a brief comment of agreement. Still, he couldn’t help but feel somewhat uncomfortable in the silence that had followed his wife’s implied command, so he blurted out the first thing that came to mind. 

“Shall I call the maids to clear the table?” he asked to the retreating form of his wife. 

Moon’s only response was a nod, but that was enough for River. Grabbing the plate with the tart he’d tried earlier – maybe now the filling would actually taste right to him – River rose from his own seat, though unlike his wife, he didn’t bother to push the heavy chair back in. 

“I’ll just take this to my chambers, then,” he said, holding up the dessert plate, just in case Moon had any interest in his intentions with the food. 

Plus he wanted to assure her that he had no plans on devouring his remaining snack in their room; he had learned the hard way, fairly early in their marriage, that crumbs on the carpet – or worse, in the bed – of the room they shared was a surefire path to being forced to sleep in his private office for at least a week. 

He didn’t hear any response from Moon, but that was enough for him to assume that she had no issues with his plans. 

After that, it didn’t seem like there was any more to be said between the two of them, so the King and Queen simply left the dining room, each going off to do whatever tasks they had at the moment. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Following her close call with her evaluation, Star found it more and more difficult with each passing day to keep from thinking of all the things that she had to worry about, no matter how hard she tried. And she really did try to ignore all of it; everything that was swirling around like a storm in her mind just made her heart pound and make her feel sick to her stomach – neither of which were welcome sensations. 

Unfortunately, it often felt like the more she tried to ignore the thoughts, the more they seemed to try and force themselves to the front of her mind. The worst part was that worrying about all this stuff was making it incredibly difficult to sleep most nights – and ever since the baby had gotten big enough that Star could feel her moving around, it was already hard enough to get a decent amount of sleep each night, even without the stress adding to the challenge. 

So, the princess did her best to cling to whatever sleep she could actually manage to get, especially on the weekends. There was no way she wouldn’t take advantage of a day where she didn’t have to force herself out of bed in the morning. However, and to her great annoyance, that was often easier said than done. 

“Seriously?” Star grumbled, placing a hand on her stomach and letting out a tired sigh as she felt a barrage of kicks against her palm. “It’s Sunday – can’t you just go back to sleep for a while? Please?” 

Of course, her request was denied; if anything, it seemed like the baby just started to move more after that point. 

Star let out a sigh and reluctantly pushed herself into a reclining position. She hadn’t gotten a ton of sleep the night before, and had hoped to make up for it that morning, but apparently life had other plans for her. 

Still not really wanting to actually get up and _do_ anything, the princess simply remained in her bed for the next few minutes. 

A sudden crashing sound from outside her window made her jump, and she looked outside to see what the source of the noise had been – mostly to see if maybe it was anything she needed to be concerned about. When she looked out her window, however, the only thing she saw was what looked like a literal wall of rain, just pouring down right outside the glass. 

“That’s a lot of rain…” Star muttered to herself, sounding genuinely amazed. Obviously she had seen rain before, plenty of times, but this was honestly the first time she could remember seeing a downpour quite like the one happening outside the Diaz family’s home. 

Her amazement only grew when she got to the window and looked outside; not only was the rain coming down so heavy that she could barely see past the wall of water, but when she looked down to the ground, she saw that the street now looked more like a river than a road. In fact, for a brief moment, she could have sworn she saw someone going down the street in an inner tube…though maybe she was just imagining that part; her mind was still kind of fuzzy from having just woken up a few moments ago. 

“Guess I’m not going out much today,” the princess muttered as she watched the water going down the street. 

She continued to just watch the rain and the flooded street for a few moments, honestly just kind of enjoying the rhythmic sound of the rain beating against the windowpane; it was genuinely relaxing, and with how tired she currently was, she welcomed that feeling. 

Her stomach growled then, pulling her away from her current thoughts, to her slight annoyance. 

“Alright, guess it’s time for breakfast,” she said, rubbing her stomach gently as she once more started to feel her unborn child squirm around, as though trying to keep her on task. 

Not quite feeling ready to actually leave her room, Star instead decided to just get some food the easy way – by using her wand. 

Star walked over to her bed and reached under her pillow for the wand, grabbing hold of the handle within seconds. However, just as she was about to pull the device out and cast a spell to make herself a quick snack (or maybe something a little more substantial, she thought to herself, her cheeks turning red as her stomach growled loudly), she heard a very faint, but at the same time, quite familiar, humming noise, coming from underneath her pillow. 

A voice in the back of her mind told her to just let go of the wand before the inevitable happened, but she was still too groggy from the lack of sleep to fully register the thought. And so, before she could do anything to even try and stop it, a blast of magical energy fired out of the crystal of her wand, hitting the first thing in its path: her pillow. 

“Please don’t be too crazy,” Star muttered nervously as she watched the pillow, now covered in a pale-colored glow, start to hover a few inches above her bed.

It took a second or so for whatever spell her wand had fired off to take its course – and fortunately, it didn’t seem to be anything that the princess felt she needed to be too concerned about. 

As the glow faded, the pillow plopped down onto the mattress, only now it had developed what looked like actual button eyes near one end, while six small lumps – almost looking like very simplified limps – had formed in the center of what used to be Star’s pillow. 

Actually, even though she wasn’t happy that apparently her “break” from her magic bursts wasn’t a more permanent thing, Star couldn’t help but…admire the result of this latest one. It was actually kind of adorable – an opinion that was only strengthened when the end of the pillow where the button eyes had formed suddenly opened up and the pillow-creature let out a cheerful-sounding coo. 

“Awww,” she cooed, tickling the plump little thing in the center of its body, getting a soft giggle in response. “You’re like…Beanbag’s baby brother, or something.” 

Maybe she was a little too excited by this revelation, but it wasn’t like anyone could really blame her. Even before she’d gotten into her current predicament, she’d always had a soft spot for babies, and baby creatures – even on the rare occasion she’d spotted monster babies before properly meeting Buff Frog’s tadpoles, she had found them oddly endearing, in a strange sort of way. Now that she was about to have a baby of her own, how could anyone expect that she’d be any less susceptible to the power of baby cuteness? 

The little pillow-creature made another cooing noise, wriggling its stubby little limbs in what Star imagined was a plea for more attention – something she was more than happy to give. 

She continued to tickling her accidental creation’s stomach, completely forgetting about the circumstances that had led to its creation…until she stomach began to growl loudly, and she felt a particularly strong jab to her stomach; the kick actually being hard enough that she couldn’t help but let out a brief cry, which she forced herself to muffle to lower the chance of catching too much attention. 

“Right, right, breakfast time,” Star said, rubbing her stomach gently as she felt the baby starting to move around like crazy, though thankfully the kicks she felt this time lacked the intensity of the one she’d experienced a few seconds ago. 

Star once again grabbed her wand, muttering a brief apology as she quickly undid the spell that had creature the pillow-creature; though as she assumed that the spell that had created it worked about the same as the one that resulted in Beanbag’s creation, she took comfort in figuring the little thing was just inside her wand now, rather than being gone forever. 

Plus, at the moment, she was honestly quite a bit more concerned with getting something to eat. 

She held onto the wand, waiting with bated breath to see if she’d get another burst, or if she was safe for the time being. After about five seconds of nothing happening, the princess decided to assume that it was safe…for the time being, at least. 

Still, she figured it’d be best to just conjure up some food before her body could have a chance to betray her, possibly in a more noticeable way than just transforming her pillow. Without really taking the time to think, Star lifted up her wand and just allowed the magic to flow through the wand; she didn’t have time to think of exactly what she wanted to eat, so she just let the magic do its own thing. 

Unfortunately, as she sensed the spell ending, she suddenly realized that she was craving pancakes – specifically chocolate chip pancakes; and she had the feeling this was one of _those_ cravings, the kind that wouldn’t allow her to satisfy her hunger until she got the baby what she wanted. 

“Well, too late for that now,” the princess muttered to herself. She had already done the spell to conjure up her breakfast, and while it would technically be possible to transform the food into the pancakes she desired if need be, considering her bursts seemed to be back, she wasn’t sure it was worth the risk. 

Fortunately, when she gave a sniff to get an idea of what kind of food she’d created, she was pleasantly surprised to catch the unmistakable aroma of chocolate. Feeling hopeful, the princess looked down to see the results of her spell…and couldn’t help but squeal when she saw a stack of five pancakes on a plate, hovering just below eye level, barely a foot away from her. 

Not taking her eyes off her breakfast, the princess very briefly lifted up her wand, intending to summon a knife and fork to help her devour what she’d created. She could have just turned her wand into the utensils she needed, but considering the risk of more bursts…she figured it probably wouldn’t be in her best interest to be in a situation where she’d have to put her wand near her face so often, much less inside of her mouth. 

With her knife and fork in hand – and her mouth starting to water quite a bit in anticipation – Star went to take a bite of her pancakes…only for the stack to vanish in a puff of clouds the instant before her fork could touch them. 

At first, Star didn’t know how to respond; she just stood there, staring at where the pancakes had been just moments ago, a blank expression on her face. After about a minute however – and helped by the fact that she was once again getting the reminders that she needed to eat something – she snapped out of her baffled trance. 

“What just happened?” she questioned, even though she knew that nobody was there to answer. She groaned when she felt a couple of particularly forceful jabs to the area around her belly button. 

“Hey, I’m gonna get you your pancakes,” she muttered as she started to gently rub her stomach once more, hoping to calm the clearly impatient child that seemed to be taking her displeasure out on her mother. “Just give me a second, okay?” 

The only thing she got in response was yet another kick against her palm, and she let out a slightly frustrated sigh; it was too early and she was too tired to deal with all this…

Star began to search for her breakfast, hoping that whatever had just happened hadn’t caused them to just vanish entirely. She knew that if she tried to just summon the food again, there’d be a good chance something would go wrong, and so she didn’t want to risk it. Plus, why waste good food when she didn’t have to? 

Thankfully, she could still smell the very distinct aroma of the chocolate from the chips inside of the pancakes, and it was strong enough that she was pretty sure that it wasn’t just the remnant of what had been there before. 

“Where’d you go?” Star muttered to herself, looking around the room for her vanished breakfast. Considering how strong the scent was, she was sure it was close, but no matter where she looked, she didn’t find a crumb of the pancakes. 

She was starting to get super frustrated when she suddenly became aware of exactly where the smell was coming from – at which point she became somewhat confused, as the smell of chocolate and pancakes was notably coming from the other side of the door that led into her Secrets’ Closet. 

Any confusion she felt was quickly ushered away as her stomach growled again, this time seeming louder than the other times combined. 

“Not like it’s that weird, anyway,” Star said, quickly walking over to the door and pulling it open – following the instance of Marco getting trapped inside (and more importantly, him reading her journal), she had stopped magically locking the door, just to be safe. 

As soon as the closet door was opened, the princess felt her mouth start to water as she was hit by the very strong smell of the food she had been craving. 

She was almost embarrassed to admit it, but it felt like the longer she waited to eat the pancakes, the more enticing they seemed; almost, but not quite – she was pregnant, after all, so not like anyone could really blame her for being eager to get something good to eat. 

The emotion she _did_ feel upon opening the closet door was actually surprise, of all things. Mostly because the instant she opened the door, she heard a rather loud and messy-sounding munching noise, and when she looked to see the source, she spotted Teddy, holding a half-eaten pancake in his paws, his face covered in a combination of crumbs, syrup, and smears of chocolate. 

“Teddy?!” Star exclaimed, eyes wide as she walked over to her creations. “What are you doing in here?” 

Teddy paused mid-bite, and looked up at the princess with a slight frown as he offered his answer to the recent question: “You never let me out of the Secrets’ Closet.” 

The teddy bear’s expression and tone were both neutral, but Star still like she was being accused of something horrible. And rightfully so, she had to admit to herself in a moment of horrified realization. 

She had been so relieved that Baby had allowed her to pass the evaluation, and wouldn’t tell her parents what she’d discovered, that she had completely forgotten about the stuff she’d hidden inside the closet, including Teddy. It had been a complete and total accident, but that it’d stop her from feeling awful now that she’d realized it’d happened. 

“I am so sorry about that,” she told Teddy, who just stared up at her, still holding the pancake in his paws. 

“Yeah, well,” Teddy began, taking another bite out of his prize and making his next words come out slightly muffled, “I got pancakes now. So I guess it’s alright.” 

Star’s stomach growled just then, reminding her of the whole reason she’d come into the closet to begin with.

“Actually…” she said, reaching out towards the plate with the remaining pancakes without really thinking about it. 

She paused when Teddy stopped eating the treat in his pause to give her a questioning glance. 

“I…kinda made those for me. I’m really hungry,” Star explained. 

Her stomach growled again, this time loud enough that even Teddy could hear it, if the way his ears twitched was any indication; though despite her slight embarrassment, the princess had to admit the sound did help prove her point. 

Not quite feeling up to arguing if it came down to that, Star simply lifted up her wand and called the living plush back inside – though she did allow him to keep the pancake he’d been eating. 

Not only did she feel like it was the least she could do, after leaving him in the closet like that, but she was pretty sure that even with that one missing, there was more than enough to satisfy her craving. 

Well, as long as she was _able_ eat it, anyway. She had no idea what had been going on with the food when she’d first summoned it, and so there was pretty much no way of knowing the same thing wouldn’t happen again. 

Star took a breath, giving a silent prayer than the plate of food would stay put, and crouched down to grab it. 

“Oh, thank you,” she sighed in relief as she picked up the plate without any problem. She felt another squirm in her belly, but this time, she smiled a little at the feeling. Probably because now that she had her food – and knew she’d be getting to eat soon – she was able to focus more on that, then her feelings of tiredness and frustration from before. 

Still, she could help but flinch at a sudden hard kick that hit her right in the center of her stomach. Carefully balancing the plate in the palm of one hand, she used the other to rub her belly, hoping the action would be enough to calm the baby. 

“Don’t worry, we’re gonna eat soon,” she said, keeping her voice low, despite knowing it was very unlikely anyone would hear her. “Just let me get out of here first.” 

The only response she got was another squirm beneath her palm; but it was nowhere near as hard as the kick she’d felt before, and so she decided to take it as a good sign. She still figured it’d be best to eat as soon as she could, so she got out of the closet in a hurry, kicking the door closed before going to sit on her bed. 

As she used her pulled out the cutlery she’d created early, Star couldn’t help but grin a little; she could only imagine how her mother would react if she saw her eating such sticky pancakes on her bed. She didn’t spend much time dwelling on the thought, instead deciding to finally start eating the food she’d gone through so much to obtain. 

“That is _so_ good,” Star said to herself as she took the first bite. She couldn’t help but hum a little out of pure joy as she tasted the sweetness of the chocolate and syrup in her mouth; maybe it was the whole magical-pregnancy-craving thing, but these pancakes tasted like some of the most incredible things she’d ever eaten. 

Which was a pleasant surprise, considering normally when she made food with her wand, it seemed to be a toss-up as to whether or not it’d be edible in the first place, never mind actually tasting good – and her magic bursts did not help those odds. 

The princess ate quickly, finishing off the short stack of pancakes in what felt like no time at all. Now all that was left was to get rid of the dirty plate. While the food had helped quite a bit in terms of giving her more energy than before, Star found she still didn’t particularly feel like leaving her room just yet, especially when she knew it wasn’t completely necessary. 

So, rather than taking the plate downstairs to be thrown into either the sink or the dishwasher, she decided on a much quicker solution: simply vanishing the dirty dish away. 

She held up the plate in one hand, and her wand in the other, giving the plate a zap of magic without a second thought – it was one of the most basic spells there was, so why bother to take the time to think about it? 

However, rather than simply disappear like it was supposed to, the plate began to float in place, surrounded by a faint glow. 

“That’s kinda weird,” Star said, reaching out to grab the floating plate. However, the instant her fingers made contact, there was a small, but still very audible cracking noise. 

“What’d I do?” asked a wide-eyed Star as she pulled her hand away. Obviously she didn’t expect an answer, but she got one, in the form of the plate continuing to crack, the sound seeming to get louder as the plate became more and more damaged. Soon there was a spider web of cracks on the plate, but by some miracle – or, more likely, magic – the plate remained in one piece…for about two more seconds. 

Star let out a squeak as she quickly held up her wand and reflexively tried to use a minor shielding charm to protect herself from the shards that flew from the plate as it suddenly exploded. 

To her great relief, the shielding charm worked perfectly, and any of the pieces of broken ceramic that went in her direction just bounced off to land on the floor. 

“Okay…” she muttered, lowering her wand and dissipating the shield. “Guess now I gotta clean this up…Probably the hard way.”

Star couldn’t help but let out a whine at the thought of having to clean up the mess made by her wand by hand, especially when she thought about how many pieces it seemed the plate had broken into. Normally she’d just used her wand to clean up a mess like this, but considering it seemed like her magic bursts were back in full force, she had a feeling using magic would just cause an even bigger mess. 

“Let’s just get this over with,” Star said, placing her wand on the bed before finally getting up and starting to pick up the pieces of the broken plate that were scattered around her room. It actually didn’t take quite as long as she thought it would – though it still took a lot longer than she wanted it to. 

Granted, it probably didn’t help that she was admittedly dragging her feet a little, and she tried to be careful whenever she picked up a piece of the broken plate from the floor. She didn’t really have an excuse for the first part (besides just really being kind of annoyed that her wand messing up put her in the position in the first place…), but she did have a good reason for the second; the last thing she needed was to cut herself. 

Finally, she was done picking up all the pieces, which she tossed into the small wastebasket by her door before walking back over to her bed. Another second passed before Star literally just allowed herself to plop down on the bed, her face buried into the mattress. 

“I’m bored,” she declared, the cushiony surface muffling her voice. She rolled over so she was looking up at the canopy of her bed, and added, “So very bored.” 

She was also still pretty tired, but considering she’d just eaten chocolate chip pancakes that were pretty much drenched in syrup – in other words, quite a bit of sugar – she had a pretty good feeling trying to sleep probably wouldn’t work out so well…

The seconds ticked by as the princess stared upwards and listened to the sound of the rain that was still pouring down outside. She stole a glance out the window, to see if there was any sign of the weather brightening up anytime soon; and if the way it looked outside was any indication, it didn’t look like she was going to be getting her wish. That just made the whole thing even more frustrating! 

Star hated having to be cooped up inside without anything to do, and she always had, ever since she was a really, really little kid, as far back as she could remember. 

But even she wouldn’t want to go outside in a storm like the one happening outside her window at the moment. She may not have fit the typical “princess standards” when it came to how much she cared about keeping her appearance all pristine and fancy, but she did draw the line as getting her clothes completely drenched without a really good reason, especially if getting wet wasn’t part of something fun. 

And, yeah, she did have her dimensional scissors, meaning she could just go somewhere with better weather to have fun, but there was one small problem with that: as far as she could tell, Marco was still asleep. Even if she could just go whenever she wanted, she didn’t want to go without him; and even though she wasn’t exactly sure what time it was, she was pretty sure it was too early for him to have woken up on his own, and she didn’t want to wake him up just ‘cause she was bored. 

Star let out a sigh, allowing her arms to flop down from her sides. As her arms landed on the bed, the fingers of one hand brushed against the handle of her wand, still lying where she’d left it when she went to pick up the mess it’d made moments ago. 

Star turned her head to look at her wand, just staring at the device for a few moments. As she stared, she started to think about what Baby had said about her evaluation; more specifically, she started to think about all the reasons Baby had said she’d initially failed the test. 

Obviously she couldn’t really do much about the majority of the points that had been made against her. It was too late to make it so the wand wasn’t broken; too late to prevent the Book and Glossaryck from being stolen, and she had no way to get them back; she couldn’t unmake her Notebook of Spells; and it was far too late to undo the fact that she was pregnant – not that she’d want to change that, even if she could. 

However, there was one point that Baby had brought up that Star realized she did technically have some control over. And that was what she was thinking of as her fingers closed – almost subconsciously – around the handle of the wand. 

“I guess I could practice a little…” she said, talking aloud to herself as she brought the wand closer to her body. “Not really sure what I’m supposed to try doing, but probably doesn’t matter too much.”

Well, she did figure it’d be best to just work on some easy stuff. After all, the complaint Baby had made was that she wasn’t able to do basic magic, not that she had issues with using magic in general. So, she tried to think of something that sounded like it’d be a really easy spell, but one she didn’t really do much. 

She thought of something, but then had a sudden realization. Specifically, she realized that her plan of trying to practice some basic magic might not go over so well…and it might not even be entirely her fault in this case. 

“Hey,” she began, lowering her voice slightly as she placed her hand on her stomach, “You think you could take it easy on the weird magic stuff? Just for a little bit?” 

The only response she got was, of course, a small nudge against the palm of her hand, which she decided to take as a positive answer to her request. 

Star smiled before laying back down on the bed, this time actually positioning herself her head was on the pillow; she had a feeling she’d be in this position for a bit, so she wanted to be as comfortable as possible. Especially considering it seemed like while the baby might give her a bit of a break when it came to the magic bursts, it didn’t seem like that generosity extended to every aspect of the current situation. 

Apparently the baby was also trying to get into a more comfortable position, but if how much she was squirming was any indication, apparently that task was proving rather difficult. Star did her best to ignore the movement and just practice her magic, but that really didn’t work out as well as she’d hoped. Finally, after a few moments of squirming about, it seemed that the baby was satisfied. 

“Okay, now let’s get this practicing started,” Star muttered to herself as she took hold of her wand. After taking a second to see if anything unplanned would happen – which it didn’t, to her relief – she zapped a tennis ball that the laser puppies like to play with and made it float over to her. More specifically, she had it hover a few feet above her head, not quite touching the canopy of the bed, but far enough that she couldn’t touch it from her current position, not matter how much she stretched her arms. 

Once the ball was in position, Star got ready to start practicing…only to find herself being distracted by the sound of the rain. 

“Lemme just do something real quick first…” the princess muttered, summoning a pair of headphones with her magic. 

She plopped them on over her ears and listened – not totally silent, but the sounds were quite muffled compared to before. “Eh, good enough,” she said with a shrug as she returned to her activity. 

Once again, she laid down on the bed, and stared up at the canopy of her bed – as well as the tennis ball floating above her. She took hold of the wand, took aim at the ball, and shot out a simple magic blast…which completely missed the ball and ended up shooting a hole through the bed’s canopy instead. 

Star frowned and tried again to hit the ball; and just got another scorched hole for her trouble. She continued in her attempt to zap the ball, getting a bit more frustrated with every failed attempt. 

However, she stayed focused, determined not to stop until she’d finally hit the thing. In fact, she was so focused on the ball in front of her that she didn’t even notice when Marco had come into her room until he stated talking. 

And even then, thanks to both her focus and her headphones, she couldn’t exactly understand what he was saying. The only word she could really make out was “scissors”, so she figured he wanted to borrow her dimensional scissors. A part of her wondered exactly what he needed them for, but also figured it was probably something important; and she was more concerned with her practice right now, anyway. 

“Yeah, yeah, sure, here you go” she said, not looking as she reached into the bedside drawer to fish out the scissors and hand them to Marco. “Just give ‘em back when you’re done, okay?” 

She was vaguely aware of him saying something else – presumably thanking her for the scissors – but barely reacted to it, instead just trying once more to zap the tennis ball.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After more than five minutes of trying and failing to hit the tennis ball, Star was beginning to consider just giving up on the whole thing. Even if she did have to work on her magic, there was no way it was worth this much frustration – or this many holes burned into the canopy of her bed. 

Just as she was about to make the decision on whether or not to give up, she heard the faint sound of barking through her headphones. 

“Marco, could you take care of the puppies? I’m kinda busy?” she called, turning her head towards the door and lifting up her headphones to better hear her friend’s response. 

Rather than any sign of her friend, when Star looked over, the first thing she saw was a strange man holding onto his dog’s leash…with said dog lifting up his leg right next to some of her stuff. 

“Hey!” Star shouted, instantly ripping the headphones off her head and leaping to her feet. “What are you doing he-?!”

Her demand broke off in a squeak as a blast of magic suddenly fired out of the wand’s crystal – too quickly for her to be able to realize it was happening, much less even attempt to stop it – and the light hit the man’s dog. Momentarily forgetting about her anger, the princess and the dog’s owner just stared in horror (well, more bewilderment in the man’s case – obviously he wasn’t exactly accustomed to magic) as the animal was briefly engulfed in sparkly light. 

The Mewnian girl only felt herself relax when the light faded to reveal the animal was totally fine, and basically unchanged, with the sole exception of there now being a diaper wrapped around his lower half. 

“Oh…that actually worked out pretty good,” Star said, speaking mostly to herself as she looked at the results of her latest burst. Then she remembered what she was about to say before she’d been interrupted. After placing her wand back into its holder, just to be safe, the Mewman turned her attention back to the man, who still seemed to be in shock as he just stared at his dog, who seemed equally baffled by his new diaper. 

“What are you doing here, and more importantly, why were you gonna let your dog pee on my stuff?” Star demanded of the strange man standing in her room. 

Said man held up his hands defensively, claiming he didn’t realize he was doing anything wrong until Star had screamed at him. “This new dog park is just really confusing, okay?” 

Now that made Star pause, her irritation suddenly replaced with confusion as she raised a questioning eyebrow.  
She repeated the man’s words back to him, though she phrased it more like a question. The man simply nodded, then asked if he could just go back to the other park; a request Star was happy to grant, though she did ask if she could follow him, to see what he was talking about. He seemed to have no objections, so the two of them walked…into Marco’s bedroom, which was now full of open dimensional portals, one of which (the same one the man stepped through) had the ends of the laser puppies’ leashes sticking out of it. 

Star stuck her head into the portal with the leashes, partly to call the puppies back home, and partly to see if Marco was there – she really needed to talk to him about all those portals in his room…

Unfortunately, her friend was nowhere in sight, meaning she had to check one of the other portals, to see if he was in any of the other locations he’d apparently decided to visit. 

Before she could examine another portal, however, she noticed one that looked…different from the others. 

While the others were all blue and sparkly, this one was a sort of orangey-yellow color, looking like a swirling flame. The Mewnian princess wasn’t exactly sure what was going on, but she had a feeling it wasn’t anything good – and she had a feeling she knew who would be able to explain the whole thing to her. 

Without taking her eyes off the firey portal, Star pulled out her compact and dialed Pony Head’s number. 

After a few seconds, her fellow princess answered, and following a brief greeting, Star turned the mirror around to let Pony Head see the portal, asking, “You have any idea what this is all about?” 

“Oh, you know what? That is not good, not good at all,” was all Pony Head had to say upon seeing what her friend wanted to show her. 

Star felt a sense of dread run through her as she whipped her compact mirror around so she could address her friend. 

“Why?” she asked, trying not to look as freaked out as she felt. “What’s up with it?” 

Pony Head went on to explain that the unfamiliar portal led to the dimension that belonged to Hekapoo – one of the members of the Magic High Commission, and the person who made all the dimensional scissors that ever existed, including the pair that Pony Head had given to Star all those months ago. 

“Well, I think Marco might be there…even if I have no idea why he’d be hanging out in Hekapoo’s dimension,” Star said, saying the last part more to herself than to Pony Head. 

The ponyhead princess made a noncommittal noise in response to this statement, before muttering, “You know he’s probably dead, right?” 

Upon seeing the look of resolve on her friend’s face, Pony Head sighed.

“Okay, go on and try to find him if that’s what you wanna do. Sounds kinda dumb to me, but what’d I know, right?” she said, sounding fairly uninterested in her own words. Suddenly, her expression went from rather disinterested to stern and almost panicked as she added, “But, if you run into Hekapoo, you do not tell her you got those scissors from me. Got it?” 

Her orders made Star suspicious and she narrowed her eyes as she said, “I thought Hekapoo gave you those scissors.” 

Pony Head’s face turned slightly red – though if Star knew her besty like she knew she did, it was less out of shame and more out of embarrassment on being called out on what she’d done – and she looked away, muttering some nonsense for a few seconds, rather than answer the question. As she apparently seemed to realize that her friend wasn’t going to drop the subject, Pony Head sighed.

“Okay, so she didn’t say I could have them. I just sorta found them in the bathroom at the Bounce Lounge and thought they looked cool, so I took them,” she explained, sounding fairly uninterested in her own story. 

“Pony! That’s stealing!” the Mewman scolded her friend, who just looked annoyed at the extremely short lecture. She muttered something about how what she’d done was different from stealing, but Star wasn’t really paying attention to that anymore. 

She had something much more important to concern herself with right now. She gave a very quick goodbye to her friend before closing the compact to put an end to the call. 

Now the princess found herself standing in front of Hekapoo’s portal, with the only thing left to do being to step inside and look for her missing friend – or at the very least, try and find Hekapoo, to see if maybe she had some idea of where Marco had gone. Just as she was about to step through the portal, she noticed something that made her pause briefly. 

“C’mon, Boo,” she said in a low voice, rubbing her stomach gently in response to the light nudge she’d just felt. “Let’s go and find your dad.” 

With that, the princess stepped through the firey portal, ignoring any part of her mind that tried to protest, or remind her that while she was vaguely familiar with Hekapoo herself, she had no idea what the magic woman’s personal dimension was like. She couldn’t afford to worry about that right now; she had to find her friend before something really bad happened to him. 

Upon stepping through the portal, Star found herself standing in an empty field…though to call it a field was being super generous in her opinion. There was almost no grass, save a few patches of dried up stuff that more resembled thin twigs than anything she’d consider grass, and she could only spot one dead tree, no matter how far she tried to look. Not that any of that matter right now. 

“Okay, Marco…” Star muttered, pulling out her wand with the intent of seeing if maybe she could do some kind of a tracking spell. “Where’d you go…?” 

She was about to try the tracking spell, when she noticed that the familiar faint humming noise had begun to fill the air. Not wanting to have to waste time taking care of whatever might result from the upcoming burst, the girl simply released her hold on the device, cutting off the unplanned spell before it could be cast, and allowing the wand to drop to the ground. 

“Okay, so no magic. Gotta find Marco the hard way,” she said, crouching down to pick up the wand and put it away. 

She sighed as she stood up, looking for any clues that could give her even the slightest hint as to where her friend had gone. 

It was then that something caught her eye: a bit of smoke, presumably coming from a house or something in the distance. Considering that was the first place that showed any sign of life, Star figured it’d be a reasonable place to start her search; either Marco would be there and her self-imposed mission would end right away, or she’d find someone else who might be able to help her. 

Either way, it’d benefit her in some way. So she rushed towards the building, occasionally looking up to the sky to look for the smoke and make sure she kept going in the right direction; the last thing she really needed was to get lost in a place like this, especially when she didn’t have any dimensional scissors for an easy escape. She ran as quickly as she could, and reached the building within moments. 

Taking a second to pull out her wand – despite the risk of a burst, she knew it’d be useful to have the device on hand in case she needed to use the magic to help defend herself – the princess kicked open the heavy wooden door, demanding, “Where’s Marco?!” to whoever might have been on the other side. 

Instead of an answer to her question, she heard an unfamiliar voice calling her name, before she found herself being lifted off the ground and pulled into an embrace. 

After getting over the initial shock of the experience, Star pushed herself away and frantically turned to see who had just grabbed her, seeing a tall and very muscular man standing before her. 

“Unhand me,” she shouted, aiming her wand at the man, unable to keep herself from looking over his body as she added, “Beautiful stranger.” 

The strange man simply smiled at the order as he started to reach behind him, grabbing at the short cape that was wrapped around his neck. “Star, it’s me – Marco” he said, pulling off the cape to reveal a very familiar red hoodie – one that looked like it had seen better days, considering how worn it looked. 

“Marco?” Star asked, unable to believe it. She looked at the man once again, studying his features very closely this time. 

And, now that she was looking at him more closely, she realized that there were a lot of things that were unmistakably traits of her best friend: the mole by his eye, the shape and color of his eyes, the way he was smiling at her…not to mention the signature hoodie, and now that she was thinking about it, even the way he’d hugged her moments ago had felt somewhat familiar. 

However, while there were plenty of things that were familiar about him, even in this form, there were also quite a few features that were _very_ different from what Star remembered. Star felt her gaze drift away from her now-grown friend’s face and move downwards, hovering around his now very muscular stomach. 

“Marco…” she breathed, her words sounding rather shaky as she spoke. As she continued to stare at his abs, she could feel her cheeks starting to warm up as a familiar feeling started to flood into her body. 

Part of her recognized the feeling as being strangely close to what she could (vaguely) remember experiencing when she had gone through mewberty, and tried to warn her away from the thoughts that her beginning to bubble to the surface of her brain. Star decided to ignore that part, because while the feeling was kind of weird, it was far from unpleasant. Besides, it’s not like she had to worry about anything; she was already pregnant…

”Still can’t believe I’ve been having all these adventures almost non-stop for sixteen years, and –“ 

Marco’s words pulled the princess out of her trance, mostly because they confused her so much. He couldn’t have just said what she’d thought he’d said. 

“Wait, did you say you’ve been here for sixteen years?” she asked, shaking her head to clear away the…distracting thoughts she’d just been experiencing. “You’ve only been gone for like…eight minutes. Maybe not even that long.” 

“Eight minutes?!” Marco shouted, his face momentarily taking on an expression of rage at this apparently unknown information. Hekapoo, from her spot in the corner of the room, made a brief comment about how time passed different in her dimension, but seemed utterly unconcerned with the way the Earth boy – well, man now, technically – was glaring at her. 

Star, on the other hand, decided to focus on the positive part of the revelation. 

“This is great,” she told him, looking up with a smile. “That means that when you come back, it’ll be like you never left.” 

She had expected him to be just as excited at this news as she was, to just open up a portal back to Earth with the scissors he was holding onto and allow the two of them to go home and put all this behind them. Instead, he avoided looking directly at her, and Star felt her heart sink a little. 

“Actually…I think I might stay here,” Marco said, still not able to look directly at his friend as he spoke. Even as he explained his reasoning, at no point could he look directly at his friend, who felt her heart grow heavier and heavier with every word he said. 

“But…but what about your parents? Or your friends?” she asked him, unable to keep her voice from shaking. She couldn’t believe he was even considering staying here, and leaving everyone behind. 

“Or me?” she added, her voice cracking slightly as she felt a sharp pain cutting through her chest at the possibility that he might want to leave her behind as well. 

She noticed Marco’s expression change slightly as she said this, and he finally looked directly at her for the first time since he’d admitted he was considering remaining in Hekapoo’s dimension. 

The baby started to move at that moment, and Star swallowed a lump that had suddenly formed in her throat. She had a feeling that he was maybe starting to reconsider his plans…but she had a feeling that maybe telling him the truth would help with that. Sure, there was still the chance that he’d be super angry at her, especially for keeping it from him for so long, but it was worth the risk if it might mean he’d be willing to home back home with her. 

“Or…” she began, her hands beginning to drift down towards her stomach, without her even really thinking about the action. 

Her voice trailed off as she remembered that Hekapoo was still in the room, and that she was watching the two friends as they had their conversation, meaning she heard everything that Star was saying. And, considering both Hekapoo and Queen Moon were members of the Magic High Commission, that meant that Hekapoo could potentially tell the Queen anything and _everything_ she might have witnessed. 

The feeling of dread at thinking about what would happen if Hekapoo told her mother anything made Star stop herself from saying anything else. All she could do was look at Marco and hope that maybe, just maybe, what she’d already said would be enough to make him change his mind about staying. 

Marco was silent, looking down at his new scissors with a thoughtful expression on his face. He then looked up at Star and smiled, the corners of his mouth turning upwards just enough for the princess to tell that he’d made his decision. 

She smiled in return, just barely able to resist the urge to run over and tackle him in a hug. Instead, she watched as Marco walked over to embrace the dragon-cycle that had been standing nearby, and turn to Hekapoo to ask her to take care of the creature while he was gone. 

“Hey, those scissors are yours now,” she told him with a smirk. “You can come here to visit Nachos whenever you want. Or you can just come to have some more fun – it really doesn’t matter to me.” 

Marco just smiled at her words before nodding and using his new scissors to cut open a portal back to Earth, which Star immediately stepped through, assuming her friend would follow close behind. Sure enough, within seconds of her stepping into Marco’s bedroom (which no longer had all of the portals that had been filled the room before), she heard him step out behind her. 

“My hot bod!” Marco shouted, causing Star to whip around to see he was back in his fourteen-year-old body, but still wearing the same clothes he’d had on in Hekapoo’s dimension. “Where’d it go?” 

While her friend looked down at himself with a frown, Star could help but smile at little at him. Even if he wasn’t all muscular anymore, she had to admit he still looked kind of cute, especially with that expression on his face. Unable to resist, she gave him a gentle poke in the belly, getting a red-faced Marco giving her an indignant stare in response. 

“Sorry, I couldn’t help myself – it’s cute,” Star tried to explain, only to find it didn’t look like her words had any effect. 

Frowning slightly, the princess excused herself from the room, announcing that she was going to make the two of them some nachos to share. 

Marco just nodded, and Star watched out of the corner of her eyes as he walked over to where his laptop lied, closed on his desk. 

She wanted to say something, but couldn’t think of the words, and so just decided to go to the kitchen to make the nachos she’d promised. Or, try to make them anyway. Star didn’t have much experience with cooking in general, and she’d never even tried to make nachos before – Marco had always made them all the other times they had them to share. 

But, she figured she’d probably seen him make them often enough that she could do a decent enough job on her own; and she knew it was the least she could do, considering how much he’d always done for her, especially when she was feeling down, like he was right now. She got into the kitchen and started to rummage around for all the stuff Marco tended to use when making nachos, all the while also trying to remember the ingredients and the steps to making the snack. 

She was still looking when she heard a chorus of excited yips coming down the stairs. And when she looked up, sure enough, there were all of the laser puppies, with their collars on and hooked up to their leashes. That was confusing enough, but then she saw Marco walk down the stairs following the puppies, the other end of the leashes in his hand, still wearing the outfit from Hekapoo’s dimension – though he had apparently taken the time to throw on a shirt under the weathered vest. 

“You’re gonna walk the puppies?” Star asked, and before Marco could give more than a slight nod in response, she added, “Isn’t it still raining?” 

Once again, she didn’t wait for him to respond – though in this case, it was mostly because she didn’t really need to wait to get the answer from him. She could still hear the sound of the rain pounding on the windowpanes and probably plenty of other places just outside the house. It did sound like it had let up a bit from earlier, but even without looking, it was pretty obvious the downpour was still rather heavy. 

“Yeah, well,” Marco began to say, glancing briefly at the puppies before turning his attention back to his friend, who was looking at him curiously. “The puppies looked like they really wanted to go for a walk, and after what I did earlier, I figured I kinda owed to them to actually take them out now.”

Star nodded, starting to understanding where he was coming from. Still, something about the situation didn’t seem right to her…Then it hit her. 

“How about I come with you guys? It’ll be fun,” she said, running over before there could be even a chance for protest. 

The puppies all started barking, most of them wagging their tails and a couple shooting off a few eye-blasts to show their enthusiasm towards this change of plans. 

Marco didn’t react quite as strongly, but it did seem like he was on board with the idea, based on the way he was smiling. 

“Plus,” Star added with a smile as she pulled out her wand – and silently prayed the spell she was about to do would work, “This way we don’t gotta get too wet.” 

On the last word, as though on cue, the crystal of her wand began to glow, and less than a second later, there was a semi-transparent shield like thing, just big enough to cover the two teens when they stood side by side, hovering just a bit above their heads. Marco looked up at the newly created shield, and then back to his friend. 

“That’s pretty cool…though I don’t think it’s gonna keep all of us out of the rain,” he said, once again glancing up at the shield. “Then again, I don’t think the puppies really care. Actually, they’ll probably like it better this way…” 

As though wanting to confirm this theory – or maybe just because they really wanted to get outside – the puppies all began to race over to the front door, yanking Marco along as they did so. 

Taking the hint their pets were obviously trying to give them, the two teens stepped out with the puppies, Marco closing the door behind them and making sure that it was locked before beginning the walk. 

Star’s spell worked perfectly, shielding her and Marco from the worst of the rain…though that didn’t prevent them from getting wet, considering Marco’s disgusted groan as he accidentally stepped in a shockingly deep puddle. Star winced slightly out of sympathy. 

“Guess I should’ve made you some boots, too,” she said, watching as Marco shook his foot in an attempt to get any remaining water out of his shoe. 

“It’s fine,” he replied once he seemed confident his shoe was no longer flooded, though it was still clear he was not happy about his sock getting soaked. “I can just take them off when we get home, so it’s really not a big deal.” 

The princess nodded and the two of them continued on their walk, though Marco seemed to pay a lot more attention to where he stepped after that incident. 

At one point, as the puppies paused to start playing around in some puddles, Star suddenly piped up, “I was gonna make us some nachos to share later, if you still want them.” 

The Earth boy looked over at her and smiled, claiming that he’d remembered her saying something about nachos before and confirming that the suggestion sounding good to him. 

“…Not sure how good they’ll be,” Star admitted, glancing away as she spoke. “I…kinda forgot how you make them.” 

“We could make them together,” Marco responded, causing Star to look over at him with a slightly surprised expression. 

She opened her mouth to say something in response, but suddenly realized that she wasn’t even exactly sure how she felt about it, never mind had any idea of what to say about it. Finally, she was able to say something, even if it was just a single word: “Why?” 

Almost immediately, she found herself wondering why she’d asked that question, especially since it didn’t really make all that much sense to ask something like that. Marco, however, just shrugged, not seeming all that concerned. 

“It’ll be a fun way to hang out and spend some more time together,” he said, looking at her from the corner of his eye. “I know it was only a few minutes, but to me, I was gone for sixteen years…And even though I knew I couldn’t give up until I earned those scissors…I miss you a lot, Star. That was why I got so excited when I saw you back there.” 

His words made the Mewman feel…weird, but nice at the same time. She had to admit, it felt really good to hear that he apparently missed her specifically during the time he was gone. But, even if it felt nice, there was also that weird feeling that accompanied it, and that was one emotion she did not want to deal with right now.

She did her best to push down the feeling before it could show too much, though she could still feel herself smiling, just a little, and was certain her cheeks were slightly pinker than normal – even taking her hearts into consideration. 

Not long after, they had finished giving the puppies their walk, and after Marco had taken off his wet shoes and socks, the two friends stepped into the kitchen to make nachos together. The whole process was fairly messy, but incredibly fun, and the end result was more than worth it. 

With the results of their labor in hand, the two decided to move to the living room, where they just sat on the couch with the plate flooded with nachos between them, turning on the TV and just marathoning the shows they loved as the hours ticked by, eating nachos together the entire time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone questioning why Moon seems to be upset when she remembers the loss of her father, when the official version of the _Magic Book of Spells_ makes it clear that he left Comet and Moon when she was very young and was estranged from her ever since...well, that's part of where the "Alternate History" tags comes in. This story, as well as the AU as a whole, changes several things about the past of the Butterfly family, including Moon's personal history.
> 
> Moon and River have quite the task on their hands now - two tasks, actually. Not only do they have to figure out a way to inform Star that they know she's pregnant without risking anyone else finding out, but they also simply need to decide what they're going to do about the fact that Star (and by extension, them, since they're helping her by keeping her secret) broke one of the most important laws in their society.
> 
> And before anyone gets on Moon's case for accusing Star of being reckless and how she should have known better...Baby only told them that Star was pregnant, not how far along she was. The Queen and King can barely believe that their daughter is pregnant at all, do you think they'd even consider that she'd kept it secret for over 5 months? Moon has no idea that the whole thing happened because of mewberty, so she just kind of assumes that Star _did_ do something incredibly reckless, and got pregnant as a result.
> 
> Finally, the whole thing of there never being a situation like Star's in the history of the Royal Butterfly family...is kind of a half-truth, for various reasons. First, because of the general idea that any princess in the past who broke the legitimacy law was erased from the history and records, with everyone forgetting they exist. But also because of other things involving the "Alternate History" tag.


End file.
